Just Beginning
by RedElaineM
Summary: Kurt has a plan. After graduation, he's headed to New York City to find his place in the world, hopefully on Broadway. Things aren't happening as expected, however, when the one person he needs to get out of his system has coinciding plans . . .
1. Chapter 1

AN: Originally posted this on Gleeslash over at livejournal. It's been recieved rather well over there, so I'm posting it here. Please r/r! Will/Kurt!

* * *

It was over.

Kurt closed his now empty locker with a sigh, stared at it for a few moments, then slipped his combination lock into his pocket. No more would he have to deal with ducking jocks carrying slushies in the hall. There would be no more stares and sniggers from empty headed teens to endure regarding his choice of clothing, the way he walked, or simply the sound of his voice. Ha! Soon enough he would have the last laugh in that department, when those vapid twits had to actually pay to hear his fabulous voice. They'd have to wait in line to see him dance or sing. His sense of fashion, well, they'd probably be dying to imitate him in the coming years, spending hundreds just to look like him. Laugh now, people . . .

The young man smirked and turned to make his way down the hall when the still sprouting smile on his face was rather abruptly put to an end in a cold, wet, and very familiar way. Wiping the slush out of his eyes and patting it off of his shirt as quickly as he could, he growled to himself and shot a death glare at the two goons laughing and walking briskly down the hall, now empty slush cups dripping their last remnants on the floor.

"Today?" he yelled at them. "Really?"

"Couldn't pass up the last chance to paint the rainbow!" Kurt clenched his fists and was about to retort when he felt a hand on his shoulder, then nearly had to cover his ears when the man next to him shouted.

"Figgins' office, both of you, now!" Will Schuester sighed and turned to Kurt. "I've got a few T-shirts in the music room, figured on a slushie epidemic today. Mostly everyone is there already if you want to get over. I'll be there after I take care of those two." He released his shoulder with a quick one-two pat, smiled apologetically and took off briskly down the hall.

Kurt looked down at his now blue and purple D&G shirt and cursed under his breath. No way was he wearing a T-shirt. Thanking his brilliant mind for his foresight he reached into his bag and pulled out the extra shirt he'd brought along, just in case. Head held high, he strode to the men's room to get changed.

* * *

Walking into the music room with his now cold, soaked, but thankfully once again solid blue shirt over his arm, Kurt found himself standing stock still in the doorway. Decorated with streamers, balloons, glitter, and cheesy plastic G-clef decor, the room was a sudden, slap-in-the-face, reminder . . .

It was over.

There wasn't a dry eye in that room. Rachel was openly sobbing, clutching onto Finn and bawling her eyes out. There was no shortage of running mascara on Mercedes or Quinn. Brittney was biting her lip and looking down with red rimmed eyes while Artie tried to console her while fighting back sniffles. Sam was busying himself with staring at the ceiling tiles. Mike and Tina were biting their nails in a disturbing, nearly simultaneous fashion, and Santana was over-applying her face powder in a vain attempt to cover up her puffy red eyes. With a quick comment to her about making sure she moisturized, and the glare that followed, Kurt took his usual seat next to Mercedes. He sighed.

"Girl, you need to invest in some waterproof mascara." Mercedes smirked and slapped his arm playfully.

"I'm gonna miss you Kurt. You'd damn well better call or I'll . . ."

". . . tear down every high end store on 5th Avenue to find me, I know . . . just spare Prada, please?"

"Oh, hell no, Prada's first to go down. And after I snatch up as many handbags as I can carry, I'm hitting Louis Vuitton."

"Never! I'll knock you down with a Gucci heel before you can cross East 57th!"

"Not before I shove you through the doors of Tiffany's!" At this Kurt burst out laughing.

"You have to come up and visit during spring break so we can do some heavy shopping." She smiled, albeit a bit sadly.

"You know, you're going to meet someone up there to go shopping with, hunny. You don't have to wait for me."

"Oh, I won't wait to go shopping, you know me, but there's definitely a special outing planned for when you visit . . ." He frowned slightly, then tried to recover. "Damn, I'm going to miss you. I don't know anyone up there. . . but, at least I won't be the only gay guy in town, right?" Mercedes smiled.

"No way in hell. I'm sure they'll be banging down your door. Plus, you'll get over that little crush of yours." Rolling his eyes and smirking, Kurt nodded.

"I'm sure 600 miles and zero contact should do the trick, and with all the eye candy walking around, I'm pretty confident I'll get distracted."

"You going to tell him? I mean, it's not like you'll ever see him again if you don't . . ." Shaking his head, Kurt sighed.

"No way, I've held on to this secret for this long and it's just foolish to tell him right before I leave. You're still the only one who knows and it's going to stay that way."

"If you're sure . . ."

"I'm sure." He nodded firmly. "There are plenty of guys in NYC, and once I get my cute little ass onto Broadway I'm not going to have any problems with suitors."

Kurt was midway through plucking a stray hair off his shirt and smirking when a shout from the hall made the entire music room quiet.

"Well, maybe I don't find it fair that those guys can get away with throwing slush at my students! It's their last day! They're graduating tomorrow and their last memory at McKinley is going to be getting their clothes wrecked by some childish prank?"

"Will, calm down. Principal Figgins isn't giving anyone detention today. Like you said, it's their last day."

"Emma, seriously. Do you know what those two did? Not only did they do their typical slush routine, they said something to him about painting the rainbow. It's ridiculous!"

At this, everyone in the music room turned to look at Kurt who held up his still rather damp shirt by his thumb and forefinger, and shrugged, smirking. When they turned away, Mercedes elbowed him in the side.

"You're enjoying this!" she hissed, as quietly as possible, and Kurt put his finger over his smiling lips in a shushing motion.

"Look, Will, what's done is done. The best you can do for your students right now is send them off with a smile and some encouragement. They've all worked really hard and done so well . . ." Running his hand through his hair and sighing, Will nodded and turned to walk into the room where his students were waiting, and unbeknownst to him, listening.

Emma grabbed his forearm to stop him. "I'm going to miss you too, you know." Will smiled softly, sadly.

"I know."

She nodded, turned awkwardly, and left down the hall. Will sighed once more and stepped into the room only to be met with full on stares from his little club.

"Is Miss Pillsbury leaving the school?" Rachel, nosy as ever, asked quietly. Will guessed the whole room wanted to know the answer, maybe just to distract themselves from the fact that they were leaving too. He knew this feeling well. There was a lot to deal with when graduating from high school, it was exciting, yes – getting ready to get out there on your own, make yourself into something. For that same reason, however, it was frighting as well. Let's not forget sad, knowing you'd be leaving everyone and everything you've known behind . . .

"Miss Pillsbury isn't leaving the school. I am." A few surprised What's and more wide eyes greeted his revelation.

"But why?" That was Finn, and Mr. Schuester shrugged.

"I got a better job offer elsewhere. Hey, don't worry about me, you guys are graduating! I'm so proud of all of you. I can honestly say I feel privileged to have worked with such talented people." He smiled wide. "Notice I said people there. You're not kids anymore, you're on the road to making your own paths, and becoming adults."

"If you tell us we're the future, I'm going to vomit." Kurt said, rolling his eyes. "C'mon Mr. Schue, we're going to get this speech tomorrow at ceremony . . . can't we just be New Directions for five more minutes and sing?" Will chuckled and shook his head, a grin on his face and his eyes getting red. He truly looked like he was going to cry.

"God, I'm going to miss you kids." Kurt scoffed, hopped down off the bleachers, and elbowed Mr. Schue in the side.

"Young adults." He said, sticking his nose up, then grinned, looked up to Mercedes, and winked. Turning back to Will with a mischievous smile on his face, he proposed the song he wanted to sing.

"So . . . Toxic?" Mr. Schue cocked an eyebrow.

"Really? You guys want to finish off Glee Club with Britney Spears?" The group looked at each other, smiled, nodded, and Mercedes was the one to pipe up with the statement that Kurt wanted to make. She knew it too, and grinned.

"You're not getting out of this either Mr. Schue, you're going to have to dance with us." He smiled as he watched his kids, no, his 'young adults' as Kurt had so aptly put it, nod enthusiastically.

"You guys . . . alright. Auditorium, let's go!"

* * *

It was a rousing performance, though the quality of it was even better than the first time they'd done the number years ago, when Sue in all of her lack of composure decided to pull the fire alarm and ruin their moment. It was their last time together as a group, and they knew it, going that extra mile to make it more memorable, not for an audience – there was none – but for themselves.

Will sighed, looking around, wiping the sweat from his brow and trying to steady his breathing. He nodded in thanks when Finn tossed him a water bottle with the accuracy that befitted that of a quarterback.

"So," he said after taking a generous swig. "Where are you all off to?"

Rachel was, of course, the first to speak up proclaiming that she was off to LA – no surprise there. Finn was going with her; he'd gotten a full scholarship to play football for the Trojans. Sam was off to Notre Dame with similar circumstances. Mercedes was going to Boston and Artie to Yale. Quinn decided on Utah and going to Provo for nursing. Mike, Tina, Brittany, and Santana were to stay in Ohio.

"How about you, Kurt?"

"Fashion Institute of Technology." He sighed happily, and didn't notice Will's eyes widen almost comically in surprise. "FIT. Keeps me close to Broadway. Figured if they turn out to be idiots down there and don't recognize my obvious talent, I'll have fashion design to fall back on."

"R-really." The smile wiped itself off of Kurt's face.

"What, don't think that's a good plan Mr. Schue? I thought I was being rather smart abou . . ." Will laughed and shook his head.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong . . . I was just surprised. Looks like I'll be seeing you around."

Kurt didn't know if it was the way Mr. Schuester smiled then, or the dawning of the meaning of what the man was saying to him, but all of a sudden he had to grab the top of the amplifier he was standing next to. His legs felt like jelly.

"Wait . . . What?"

"Well," Will's smile got impossibly wider. "I wasn't going to say anymore about this, but that new job I was talking about earlier . . . I'm going to be doing some directing on Broadway . . ."

The last thing Kurt heard before fainting rather ungracefully onto the auditorium floor was Mercedes' hysterical laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: Just Beginning (2/?)**  
**Authors: ****redelainem**

**Pairing:** Will/Kurt  
**Rating: **T (for now)  
**Warnings:** Nothing yet – though references to canon couples are made.  
**Spoilers:** Up to Duets, then divergent  
**Word Count: 3183 ****this chapter. Current total**** 5287.**  
**Disclaimer:** Glee and its characters don't belong to me. Neither does Les Miserables.  
**Summary:** Kurt has a plan. After graduation, he's headed to New York City to find his place in the world, hopefully on Broadway. Things aren't happening as expected, however, when the one person he needs to get out of his system has coinciding plans . . .

* * *

Will felt his grin instantly leave his face as, in what seemed to be slow motion, his student fell to the floor. The gasps that erupted in the echoing auditorium seemed deafening, piled on top of the staccato yelps of "Kurt!" and "Shit!" - some of it falling past his own lips, professionalism be damned in his shock.

The group piled around the boy, until Will came to his senses and shouted for everyone to give him some air. What most astounded the young teacher was while everyone else was huddled around Kurt, Mercedes was standing there, giggling. He couldn't help the glare he shot in her direction, as much as he couldn't hide the anger in his voice when he addressed her from his current crouched position beside the fallen senior.

"Mercedes! I fail to see what is so funny." she coughed, either clearing her throat or just trying to force herself to stop laughing, Will didn't know. "Friends don't generally laugh when friends are hurt, Miss Jones."

When Mercedes rolled her eyes – actually rolled her eyes at him! - Will had to grit his teeth and refrain from saying something that would probably not be received well. The word 'Bitch' came to mind rather forcefully, and he would have stopped to wonder just why he was so riled up if not for the object of his current irritation walking up to Kurt and shaking his shoulder none too gently.

"Come on, wake up, Drama Queen." She smiled, and Kurt's eyes squinted; his mouth formed a smirk.

"Call me that again, bitch, and you'll be finding your Coach bags at the bottom of the Ottawa River." They both laughed and Mercedes turned to Mr. Schue.

"See, he's fine. Probably just skipped lunch again and danced too hard." Kurt shot her an angry look, bringing himself to a seated position and holding his glare.

"That is SO not why I fainted and you know it!" He snapped without thinking. "It's preposterous! I'd never faint after one little number like that! Absurd! I . . ."

"Kurt."

"I'm a performer for fuck's sake! I . . . "

"Kurt!" Schuester yelled more firmly and Kurt scowled.

Shaking his head and deciding to drop the issue, at least for the moment, Will extended his hand, intending to help the young man to his feet. Kurt looked at it for a second, blinked, and then got up on his own.

"I'm not some damsel in distress, Mr. Schue." He said simply to Will's confused face, then smiled. "Thanks, though."

Will nodded, feeling uncomfortably like he should be saying or doing more, but not quite able to figure out what that was. Instead, he just put his hand down, momentarily puzzled about why he still had it out at all, then shrugged the feeling aside. He was probably just shaken. It's not everyday one of your favorite students falls to the floor in a dead faint.

One of his favorite students. Everyone in New Directions, the Glee club, _His_ Glee club held a special place for him. These kids, no, these men and women – they were all going to go far. He hadn't been kidding or exaggerating when he had told them he was proud of them. They were all amazing in their own right, incredible, spectacular performers . . . and great people. Sure they still had some growing up to do, and there were some things that just couldn't be taught, but he had such . . . hope for them.

Sitting himself down on one of the many auditorium chairs, Will contented himself with just watching them all chit chat with each other.

Rachel and Finn. There weren't many high school relationships that stood the test of time, and watching them vaguely reminded him of himself and Terri, back when things were still good between them. Those two were in for a challenge, and Will had to wonder how far they'd thought things through. How they were going to manage when Rachel found her niche in LA – she undoubtedly would; that girl was ferociously determined, after all . . . and what if Finn went pro, which again, Mr. Schuester could easily foresee. . .

He wasn't a huge football fan, but he promised himself he'd try to catch the Trojan games whenever he could – and he'd definitely make it a point to see any game that might pit them against Notre Dame . . . Finn and Sam had developed quite the friendly, competitive attitude towards each other over the years, and it would be interesting to see them take that out on the field, leading their respective teams.

He smiled to himself. Quinn was sure to help Sam out with the injuries he was sure to get playing ball once she was done with nursing school. While that, well, whatever they had going on , didn't seem to last long, it didn't take a genius to see that the two genuinely cared about each other.

Santana, Brittany, and Artie . . . those three had become like watching a soap opera. He shook his head and smirked affectionately. _Teenagers._

Tina and Mike – where were they anyway . . . Will grimaced when he spotted them making out in the corner . . . and decided to let them be. Rumor had it that Mike was going to China for the summer, and leaving the day after graduation . . . might as well give them the little time they had.

His eyes finally fell on Mercedes and Kurt. Out of everyone in Glee, those two seemed to confuse him the most. The amount of bickering they indulged in – completely in jest for the most part and always affectionate – in another world, in some sort of strange, parallel universe, Will was sure those two would have been in some romantic, old married couple type relationship. Their camaraderie was nothing short of incredible, and he couldn't help but feel a little . . . jealous of them. To have a friendship that those two had – against all rhyme and reason . . . .

Oh, but they infuriated him as much as he adored them. For the life of him, he just couldn't put a finger on exactly what those conflicting emotions stemmed from.

They both had gorgeous voices, separate styles, but wonderful in their own right . . . though he had to say, from a professional standpoint, that if either of them was going to make it – it was definitely Kurt. That guy had talent coming out the ears – singing, dancing, emoting . . . he assumed fashion sense, but couldn't say for sure, as he was severely lacking in that department – even he knew that. There was just something about that guy . . .

"Mr. Schue?" Will nearly jumped out of his seat, startled out of his thoughts abruptly. It had been Rachel who had addressed him, and as he looked around the room, he realized everyone for some reason was just standing there and staring right at him. He turned to Rachel – she was standing there next to him with what looked like . . . worry etched on her features.

"Mr. Schue . . . you, um. You're crying. Are you alright?" his eyes widened in surprise and his hand went up to his cheek. Sure enough it came back wet. He hadn't even realized. When had that started? "You looked pretty deep in thought there for a while . . ."

"Oh . . ." surprise again. His throat was raspy – choked up. He had to cough to clear it. "I uh . . . well I was thinking about all of you to be honest . . . guess I'm going to miss you guys more than I thought."

"Not Kurt!" Mercedes shouted. "You're going to be stuck with him on Broadway someday!" Kurt gaped at her and flushed scarlet.

"Mercedes, shut up!" He hissed, and then jumped when Mr. Schue seemed to pop up beside him out of nowhere, and put his hand on the younger man's shoulder, smiling brightly.

"Looking forward to it, Mr. Hummel." Then the older man winked before walking more towards the center of the room. A sudden Ow! Turned his attention back to Kurt and Mercedes. Kurt was rubbing his arm and glaring at his friend. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Looked like he was going to faint again . . . so I pinched him." Confused and, he figured, probably a little oblivious – those two always seemed to play off some secret joke – Will turned back . . . to say his good byes. He paused when he thought he heard Kurt mutter a death threat to Mercedes, but just shook his head and smiled.

"Guys . . . I just don't have the words to express how much you all mean to me as an instructor – or even just as a human being. Thank you all so much for these wonderful years." He put out his hand to Rachel, she was the closest, to shake. She just smiled teary eyed and shook her head 'no'.

"Mr. Schuester . . .there's no way you're saying goodbye to us with a hand shake. Group hug's the only way to go."

Before he could protest, he was very nearly tackled to the ground with one extremely enthusiastic Glee club group hug.

* * *

"You're sure?" Will smiled sadly and shook his head, looking up from the now full box sitting atop his empty desk.

"I'm packing, aren't I?" He chuckled sadly. "You were there when I passed in my resignation, Emma. You know I'm sure." Glancing up at her, Will noticed her shuffling uncomfortably, worrying her lip with her teeth, and quite obviously looking to be on the brink of tears.

"I . . . I'm sorry Will, of course you are . . . I'm just . . . I've been dreading today, you know?" She inhaled shakily. "I'm going to miss my best friend." Will sighed.

"C'mere" he said, and wrapped his arms around the distraught woman, trying to hold back his own threatening tears. "You know my number . . . you can call, write . . . I'll even send you front row tickets to my first show." Releasing the hug and holding her at arms length, he smiled. "You'll see me again, and when you do, we can go for coffee and chat, and complain to each other about our love lives . . . just like old times."

"Promise?" She asked, and he nodded firmly. Emma sighed.

"Will, can I ask you a favor?" Cocking an eyebrow, Will waited for her to continue. "Just . . . make sure you make some new friends while you're up there . . . you're so closed off all the time . . . I . . . Well, I don't want you to be so darn lonely anymore. New starts are great and all, and I'm happy for you, I really am but you don't take enough time for yourself . . . plus being in a big city and not knowing anyone. . . I'm just worried, I suppose." That did it. Dammit, and he really didn't intend to cry in front of her, but at that point he just couldn't help it. He could barely remember the last time he'd cried so much in the course of a day . . . well he could actually, but he preferred not to bother himself with thoughts of Terri and her insanity. Leave it to Emma to know just what to say to get the waterworks going.

"I'll try . . . oh!" he smiled, quickly wiping the moisture from his eyes, glad to have the opportunity to change the mood in the room. "I found something out about an hour ago about that . . . turns out I'm not the only one from McKinley trying to take off to Broadway." Emma smiled at his enthusiasm.

"Oh really. Who?" Will smirked mischievously.

"Three guesses . . . though I know you know my gleeks, so you'll probably only need one – maybe two."

"Either Rachel Berry or Kurt Hummel" she paused, "Though judging by that grin on your face, I'm going to guess it's Kurt." He chuckled.

"Now why would you say that?"

Emma leveled "The Look" at him, and he paused with the poster he was busying himself taking down.

"Really, Will? I mean, you get all up in arms when Rachel's giving you goo goo eyes, but never once complained about Kurt . . . and you're not blind, or stupid." Seeing the confused shock on her friend's face, her eyes widened. "You really didn't notice?"

Will blinked the surprise off his his face, and rolled his eyes.

"I think you're reading too many of those homoerotic romance novels, Emma." She blushed, but just shook her head.

"No, I'm pretty sure about this. Woman's intuition. The psych major doesn't hurt either." Deciding abruptly that he really needed to sit down, he did, exhaling heavily.

"That would explain the fainting. . . and Mercedes' laughing. I think I owe her an apology." Emma's brow crinkled.

"Fainting? What happened?" Will rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger as if staving off a headache.

"Kurt fainted after I told him that I would be seeing him around Broadway. I was worried, Mercedes was giggling, and I snapped at her pretty harshly. Long story short version, anyway. . . If you're right Emma . . . damn, it _is_ rather obvious now that I think about it." Emma smirked.

"You're blushing." Will chuckled.

"You're imagining things." Sighing, Emma turned to head toward the door.

"No . . . no, I don't think I am. Anyway, I really have to be heading home. Carl's going to be worried." Pausing, poking her head out the door and then back in again, she grinned. "Someone's in the music room . . . unless you left your Les Miserables soundtrack running." Will stood up, and listened.

_. . . And I know it's only in my mind, that I'm talking to myself . . . and not to him,  
And although I know that he is blind! Still I say, there's a way for us! _

" . . . That's no soundtrack." Walking out the door and motioning for Emma to follow him, he strode quietly down the hall.

_I love him, but when the night is over . . . He is gone, The river's just a river . . .  
Without him, The world around me changes  
The trees are bare and everywhere the streets are full of strangers._

Emma peered into the music room, and Will pulled her back, putting his finger to her lips to tell her to stay quiet.

_I love him, but every day I'm learning . . . All my life, I've only been pretending!  
Without me, his world would go on turning, _

_A world that's full of happiness that I have never known! _

Will shuddered.

Raw.

Definitely, the only word he could use for the emotions currently playing out vocally. No other word would do.

_I love him . . . I love him . . . I love him  
But only on my own. _

Emma shot him a look, as if to say something along the lines of "I told you so," and then mouthed the words "I've gotta go" and "Call me."

Will nodded and then banged the back of his head against the wall on which he was currently leaning.

* * *

Kurt wiped the tears out of his eyes, sighed, smiled and shook his head. Sometimes he thought himself positively masochistic . . . singing a song like that right now. What was he thinking!

"You put Rachel Berry to shame." Kurt's head whipped up and he spun around almost too quickly. Surprise had put him off balance. "Don't tell her I said that though, or she'll probably lynch me." Eyes widening, hands shaking, and probably blushing one shade short of maroon, Kurt swallowed the uncomfortable lump that had settled in his throat.

"M-Mr. Schue!" he stuttered, and cursed mentally at himself for how startled he sounded.

Mr. Schuester smiled, rubbing the back of his head in what looked to be a nervous, uncomfortable fashion. Kurt just stood there for a moment, trying to get his racing heart under control.

"Will." The older man said firmly, and Kurt could do nothing but stare dumbly at him.

"Excuse me?" Smiling, Mr. Schuester walked over to the piano and grabbed something rectangular from atop it. A few somethings, actually. Taking one and putting the rest in his pocket, he walked over to stand in front of the utterly flabbergasted teen.

"Will." he repeated, handing Kurt what the young man now saw to be a business card. "I'm not your teacher anymore, and you're not my student. . . I'm really excited that I might get a chance to work with you again, and being on a first name basis just feels more appropriate." He smiled and pointed to the card in Kurt's hand. "I just had those printed up. Give me a call when you get to New York." Will turned to leave, hand up in a farewell wave.

Kurt couldn't help the tears that welled up in his eyes then, happiness that felt like it would just explode out of him as he ran up to his former teacher and hugged him from behind. Feeling the vibrations of Will's chest as he chuckled, Kurt felt more content, more _alive_ then he had since he could remember.

"T-Thank you." He stuttered slightly, reluctantly letting go. "Will." The older man nodded, and walked out of that particular door for the last time.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN** Was going to skip right to New York in this chapter, but I need to give these kids their graduation. Please remember, that while this is a Kurt/Will fic, plot is very important to me and part of the reason I'm writing this. It may seem like a filler chapter at the beginning, but trust me when I say that it's important for the rest of the story. . . especially towards the end . . .

* * *

For once, the auditorium was nearly completely silent upon the entrance of Principal Figgans. There was no random tittering, offhanded rude comments, or offensive shouts – merely the sound of slight shuffling and sniffles. He paused at his podium, almost as if he expected something to happen or to be said. Nothing came, and he smiled.

"You all made it." he began. "This is wonderful, and I am very pleased." He paused and pulled the microphone from its place on the podium, a brief feedback shrill causing some of the graduates, all garbed in their red and white McKinley gowns and caps, to cover their ears and grimace.

"These have not been easy years for all of you." he said as he walked to center stage. "Some of your friends have not made it. For the one hundred and sixty three that have, I congratulate you. You are the future . . ." A few scattered gagging sounds were heard and Figgans rolled his eyes, but smirked.

"I am not good at speeches." He said when things had quieted down again. "Typically at McKinley graduations, we have a speech from our valedictorian and salutatorian. This year will be a little different." He paused.

"If you were to look at your programs, you will see that this year's salutatorian and valedictorian have not been listed. We made no announcements of who they were, nor were they photographed for the yearbook. They declined, and suggested an alternative for spending the money that would have been otherwise used for their page in this year's Thunderclap. After much deliberation with these students, and a rather large amount of after school planning with them and the small group that would be involved in this years ceremony, I will speak for everyone when I say how lucky McKinley is to have such great people in their midst. They have planned an excellent surprise for all of you, on their own as the adults they have now become. By coin flip, the decision was made to have the salutatorian deliver our speech this year." He smiled. "Without further ado, I present to you the top two members of this year's class, Mr. Artie Abrams and Mr. Kurt Hummel!"

Murmuring for a moments and then bursting into applause, the individuals in the audience rose to their feet as the two said students made their way on stage. Kurt took to the podium while Artie positioned himself next to it as they waited for the crowd to quiet.

"You can all sit down – this is probably the least amazing entrance I've made on this stage." Kurt began, smirking. "The person who designed caps and gowns should probably be shot; It does absolutely nothing for the figure." After the few giggles died down, Kurt exhaled heavily.

"I'm going to be frank with this speech, as I've never been one to mince words or dumb down anything for anyone. I'm not about to start now. My time at McKinley has held some of the worst and some of the best memories of my life; There are some things I'm going to miss terribly and some things that I can not wait to never have to deal with again." He sighed.

"Congratulations, class. You've all graduated." Pausing for effect and leveling a serious look at the crowd, he continued.

"Now that high school's over, you are _all_ Lima losers." Amidst the horrified gasps of the faculty and the uproar of indignant cries from the students, Kurt nodded to someone backstage and the curtain began to rise, revealing the entirety of New Directions sitting in a setup not unlike the appearance of the high schools choir room. The young man smirked as things began to quiet down, animosity coming from the audience in waves.

"You don't like hearing that, do you? Especially since it's your graduation. Truth is hard. The fact of the matter is, now that you're out of high school, no one is going to care that you were a Cheerio, a football player, a freak, or a geek." He turned and pointed behind him at the Glee members sitting on stage, all dressed in their normal clothing, sitting quietly – some holding back laughs.

"Take a good look at those people sitting there. Really. Take a good, hard look at the people you spent most of your high school time bullying because they were at the bottom of the social barrel."

"You are _all_ represented somewhere in there. Cheerleaders, jocks, and nerds, goths and preps, black, white, Hispanic, and Asian, Christian, Jewish, agnostics, and atheists . . . teen moms, homosexuals, handi-capable, rich, poor, punks, and goodie-two-shoes."

"The differences you have are what's going to make you as individuals. The effort you put into everything you do from now on is what is going to help you rise above being just another Lima loser. The playing field is now leveled. The person sitting next to you in a few years may be your boss, your employee, your grocer, your favorite movie star or singer, the guy in front of you getting coffee, or the bum drinking stolen cough medicine at the bus stop."

"Social status means next to nothing now. I realize that sounds a little trite and maybe even a tad hypocritical coming from me, considering it's fairly well known that I have aspirations of grandeur on Broadway – a goal that would put me near the top of social status or celebrity. The fact of the matter is, I don't dance or sing to get attention or to be looked up to – it started that way when I was younger, when I felt, like many of you, that to be important you had to be admired . . . but I've come to the realization that the reason I love Broadway and musicals and singing and dancing isn't so much the attention I get on stage, but the feeling of freedom and the joy that comes from just being able to let go and be _me._"

"I'm leaving Lima in less than a week. My bags are packed; everything is in order, and frankly, I can't wait to get out of here. I refuse to let my life be mediocre; I refuse to be a Lima loser. I really hope that I hit home with this little speech of mine, because we're all saying goodbye now – we're all leaving friends, family, and mentors . . . people we love and hate, some of whom we will never see again."

"Most of you, I will never run into again; some of you probably don't care. For the people that do love me, I can't wait to show you how fabulous I can be. Personally, I know some extraordinary people, and it breaks my heart to say goodbye . . . but sometimes goodbye is a second chance. Thanks."

The cheer that erupted then was deafening as in a nearly simultaneous motion everyone in the auditorium rose to their feet and clapped, whooped, and whistled. Kurt handed the mic to Artie, who smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

"We have one last performance for you all from New Directions . . ." Artie began as the audience simmered down. "We'd not only like to dedicate this song to our class, but to our director, Mr. William Schuester. . ." Pointing the microphone at the Glee club, they shouted.

"Thank you Mr. Schue!" Will, who at this point had already been tearing up, was now all out crying, his hand over his mouth covering his ear to ear grin. Kurt smiled at him and grabbed the mic from Artie.

"Knock it off already Schuester, you're going to give yourself wrinkles." Will chuckled and shook his head and Kurt threw the microphone to Finn. Artie made his way to the rest of the group and strapped on a guitar and Kurt made his way to the piano.

_My eyes are open wide, by the way, I made it through the day . . ._

_I watched the world outside,by the way, I'm leaving out today. . ._

_I just saw Hallie's Comet, she waved, said "Why you always running in place?"_

"_Even the man in the moon disappears, somewhere in the stratosphere."_

_Tell my mother, tell my father, I've done the best I can . . ._

_to make them realize, this is my life, I hope they understand . . ._

_I'm not angry, I'm just saying. . . _

_Sometimes goodbye is a second chance._

_Please don't cry one tear for me, I'm not afraid, of what I have to say . . ._

_This is my one and only voice, so listen close . . .It's only for today . . ._

_I just saw Hallie's Comet, she waved, said "Why you always running in place?"_

"_Even the man in the moon disappears, somewhere in the stratosphere."_

_Tell my mother, tell my father, I've done the best I can . . ._

_to make them realize, this is my life, I hope they understand . . ._

_I'm not angry, I'm just saying. . . _

_Sometimes goodbye is a second chance._

_Here is my chance_

_This is my chance_

_Tell my mother, tell my father, I've done the best I can . . ._

_to make them realize, this is my life, I hope they understand . . ._

_I'm not angry, I'm just saying. . . _

_Sometimes goodbye is a second chance._

_Sometimes goodbye is a second chance_

_Sometimes goodbye is a second chance_

The auditorium erupted as New Directions faded out, tears falling, people screaming, and mortar boards flying. The Glee club looked to each other, grinning wide, and took a bow.

* * *

"Why didn't you _tell me_ you made salutatorian? I mean, really, Kurt, you're my best friend!" Kurt smiled and shook his head at Mercedes.

"I could hardly spoil the _whole_ surprise for the Glee club, plus I didn't want to make too big a deal about it. Artie only beat me out by half a point, too." He sighed.

Mercedes looked at her friend incredulously.

"You didn't want to make a big deal . . . are you for real? That speech was . . . _Legendary_. Capitol L."

"I know." The young woman shook her head and slugged him in the arm.

"Modest you are not Kurt Hummel. So . . . you said you wanted to talk about something?" He shrugged.

"A few things, actually . . . for one . . ." This time, he punched _her_ playfully in the arm. "When I fainted yesterday, you totally should have waited a little longer to wake me up . . . I mean, what if Mr. Schue thought I needed CPR or something . . ."

Mercedes positively cracked up.

"Oh my God, Kurt, you're too much. Oh, you should of seen him though, he was totally freaked . . . nearly chewed off my god damn head for laughing at you." Kurt cocked a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"Really."

"Mmm hmm. Got the whole 'you shouldn't laugh at your friends when they're hurt' line. And, get this, he called me Miss. Jones. . . all attitude and pissed off . . . I could have sworn he called me a bitch too, but I don't think he realized he actually said it . . ." At this Kurt laughed.

"Well you are. I could have scratched up my shoes falling like that. Honestly, Mercedes, you have no concern at all . . ." She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, princess, you know I love you."

"Male, remember?" He laughed shaking his head. "I love you too, Say-Dees." She smiled.

"So was there anything . . ."

"Alright, so get this . . ." Kurt interrupted, "After we all got out of the auditorium yesterday, I went back up to the choir room . . . I'd forgotten that shirt that got slushied, right?" she nodded and he continued. "So, I spot the Les Mis music book on top of the piano, and my over emotional insanity takes over and decides to sing out 'On my Own.' . . . well, guess who shows up right as I'm drying my eyes . . ."

"Oh, hell no."

"Hell yes . . . first words out of his mouth, and I quote . . . 'You put Rachel Berry to shame.'" Mercedes eyes widened.

"He didn't . . . Kurt, that was the song she used to try out for Glee Club . . ." he laughed.

"Yeah, I know, she wouldn't shut up about her song choice, as usual . . . but really Mercedes, that wasn't the best part." She blinked a few times.

"He didn't try to . . . take advantage of you did he?" Kurt blushed crimson, then sighed.

"I wish, but no . . . he did, however, give me his business card and told me to start calling him Will." Mercedes jaw would have hit the floor had it been detachable.

"Do you think . . . do you think he knows? Like, that you . . . like him?" Kurt shook his head sadly.

"I don't know, and it really doesn't matter . . ." At Mercedes' surprised look, Kurt just shrugged and pulled Will's business card out of his pocket. "It doesn't matter because I made a decision . . ." he gulped. It wouldn't do to cry when he was trying to be confident.

Then he ripped the card in half, then quarters, and dropped it in the trash. Mercedes eyes widened and she grabbed his wrist.

"Why the hell did you do that for?" Kurt shook his head, pulled her hand off of him, and turned around. She was _not _going to see him be upset about this.

"I want to get on Broadway by myself. He's helped me enough in that department . . . and I need to do this without him. I know he'd put a good word in for me, that's the kind of guy he is – I want to do this on my own steam, with my talent alone . . . not by having a foot already in the door."

"You're making a mistake!"

He began walking away, and Mercedes just watched him leave. Turning to go, she noticed the pieces of the discarded card lying in the trash can, and cursed vulgarly, looking into the sky as if to say "Why is my best friend such an idiot" before scooping them out and running off. He would regret this at some point, and she would have the damn thing when he did.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN** This chapter makes up for the last chapter, big time. I think you'll enjoy . . . please r/r!

* * *

"That was a great show, Will . . ." Emma sighed and bit her lip as Will merely nodded, looking straight ahead as the two of them left the crowded theater. He looked positively miserable, she observed, far from what she expected of his attitude having had a sellout crowd for his first endeavor on Broadway. She shook her head.

"Isn't there an after event or something you have to head to now?" Merely shaking his head and raising his hand to hail a cab, he shrugged.

"I promised you coffee and catch up time, remember? I told the crew I wouldn't be making it – that I had a friend from out of town flying in and all . . ." He folded his arms over his chest, almost as if trying to keep himself together. He probably was, Emma guessed . . . she hadn't seen him this upset since the glee club had lost regionals in their first year. What in the world was going on here?

She jumped when he chuckled, a sound that had no cheer to it . . . God, what had happened to him?

"I'd really like someone to talk to, Em, if you don't mind . . . I'll put my coat down on the seat if that's what you're worried about." She shook her head. Now he was mistaking the concern on her face as one of her issues with OCD. . .

"That's not what's wrong Will, I mean thanks for the gesture and all, I appreciate it, but . . ." She sighed. "Are you okay?" He visibly gulped – one of those Adam's apple moving gulps, and Emma's brow furrowed. "Will?"

"Um, no. No, I'm not really." He slipped off his jacket as the cab pulled up to the curb, and opened the door to place it on the seat for Emma. "I'll talk about it when we get to the shop. After you." He motioned for her to sit down, she did, and he shut the door and walked around to the other side.

The ride was silent and uncomfortable. Will looked out the window for most of it, an absent look on his face, and Emma looked at him and tried to figure out just what on earth was troubling him so much. This was one of his dreams, wasn't it? So why was he so utterly despondent? Maybe . . .

"So . . ." she began, and he held a hand out to silence her.

"In a minute, Em, we're pulling up now and I really don't want to have this discussion in a cab." She nodded, and they both got out of the now stopped vehicle to make their way into a cafe. It was a hole-in-the-wall type place, small, clean, but relatively empty of customers. Making her way to the table alongside him and pulling her hand sanitizer out of her purse, she distracted herself for a full minute before finally having to speak up.

"So what's going on?" She asked and when he didn't start speaking, she sighed. He seemed to be deep in thought, and making far too big a deal of shaking the sugar down to the bottom of its packet. She'd had enough.

"Will! What is _wrong_ with you?" Finally, a reaction. He stopped his fidgeting abruptly and looked at her in shock, probably due to the tone of her voice, she supposed. Running his hand through his hair, he found his voice.

"I think I may be . . . depressed." he laughed bitterly, and Emma frowned, waiting for him to continue, hoping that he would. He did. "I mean, when I left Ohio, I knew that this was going to be hard on me. Everyone I know is down there. My parents, you, the . . ." he shook his head, not finishing the sentence, but Emma knew what he was going to say. She really had no gentle way to approach that particular thought.

"Will, the Glee club's gone . . . at least as you knew it. You knew they were going to grow up someday, and they're all over the country now, you know?"

"I do know that. Intellectually at least, I know. It's just that I get to thinking about home and they're all part of it . . . and this whole Broadway thing . . . it's just not the same. It's nothing like what I dreamed of, you know. I always thought it would be this big group of talented people enjoying performance and singing and music . . . but it's not! It's completely depressing – like because they're adults they can't just enjoy what they do. They're just so worried about the money and fame aspect that they completely lose the point. They do everything I taught my kids not to do with their lives, and it's upsetting. It freaks me out actually. I mean, what if Rachel got to LA and lost her love for the arts, just got hung up on becoming a star and stopped enjoying the process . . . and Kurt . . ." At this point, his voice cracked and he had to blink away a few tears. "God, Emma, you have no idea how much I wanted him to walk through the door during open auditions . . . and he never did. Every day since I've been here, I've looked in the paper to see if his name was in there – that he was doing something with all that talent of his, and nothing. Nothing! Not a word. I gave him my goddamned business card before I left and he hasn't even _called_." Emma sighed.

"Have you tried calling him?"

"Unlisted. I checked . . . it's like he dropped off the planet. I just . . . don't know what to do about the whole thing, you know? I'm worried about him and there's no way to find out if he's okay . . ."

"Have you tried Mercedes?" Will's eyes widened, and Emma nearly gasped with the change that came over his features. Hope. She watched him fumble with his cell phone, punching in 411 with trembling fingers, and then raising the device to his ear.

"Boston, Massachusetts . . . Mercedes Jones."

* * *

Mercedes was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. Oh, thank God for Skype . . . she didn't even want to know how much she would have been missing her friend if it weren't for their every other day video chats.

"I mean really, Mercedes, it was worse than Rachel's Gaga outfit . . . at least Berry had the sense to leave out the bunny slippers . . . and the raccoon hat. I don't know how this girl even got into this school!" The young woman shrugged and shook her head.

"We can't all have your fabulous fashion sense." Kurt smirked.

"It's a tragedy." He sighed over dramatically. Mercedes rolled her eyes.

"Speaking about tragedy . . . tell me, _please_, that you're going to snap out of that fool funk of yours pretty soon and audition. This is getting out of hand!" About to reply, Kurt was interrupted by Mercedes' ringing phone. She scowled, glanced at the caller ID, and frowned.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to pick it up?" The man on her computer asked, regarding her curiously. Second ring . . .

"Manhattan area code . . ." she murmured. Kurt looked at her in confusion. Third ring . . .

"Who else do you know from NYC?" She shrugged.

"Guess I'm going to find out. . ." Fourth ring, and she picked up the phone . . . and almost dropped it in shock when the voice came in on the other line, her eyes going wide. She noticed Kurt looking like he was going to say something, probably ask who it was, and his look turned to confusion when she shook her head, put her finger to her lips to tell him to stay quiet, and pushed the button for the speakerphone.

"You still there?" Mercedes watched as Kurt's eyes widened in recognition and surprise, and then she replied.

"Y-yeah, Mr. Schue, I'm still here . . . you kind of caught me off guard." She laughed nervously. What the _hell_ was he doing calling _her_? "What's up? And don't tell me you need a diva for some show of yours, cuz I'm really busy with school right now . . ." He laughed, and she couldn't help but smile.

"No, no . . . that's not it at all – though you are quite the diva . . ." he paused. "I actually have a question for you."

"Really . . . that's different. . . okay, so . . ."

"I'm kind of worried about Kurt." Mercedes looked to the equally shocked young man on her screen. "I kind of expected I would have heard from him by now, and there hasn't been any word from him . . . I just wanted to know if he was alright."

"Um, he's fine, Mr. Schue . . . I was just talking to him, actually." She was surprised by the sound of the relieved sigh that came over the line . . . could practically hear him smiling through the phone.

"That . . . that's great. Could you, maybe ask him to give me a call next time you talk to him? I kind of miss him . . ." Mercedes smirked and bit her lip so as not to burst out laughing at the current shade of Kurt's cheeks. "Not that I don't miss all you guys . . . I just . . ." Will added quickly, obviously trying to make sure her feelings weren't hurt. They weren't, but, she figured it was good of him just the same.

"You just miss me more."

Mercedes had heard the term 'deafening silence' before, but never fully appreciated it before. She looked to her screen, where Kurt was covering his mouth and blushing impossibly redder than he had before . . . and she had a sneaking suspicion that somewhere in Manhattan a particular ex-teacher of hers was doing the same.

"You . . . he . . ." Schuester stuttered. "Kurt's in Boston?" She couldn't help it, maybe it was nerves, but she laughed.

"Uh . . . no, Mr. Schue . . . like I said, I was just talking to him. Um . . . it's a video conferencing thing online." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"I'm in Manhattan. I'm fine. I'm just busy with school and I have my reasons for doing what I'm doing . . ." he bit his lip. "Look, if you want, I have to do some trend observation down at Penn station tomorrow . . . it's not my usual cup of tea, but I can meet you at Tim Horton's and we can catch up . . ."

Mercedes blinked in mild surprise . . . she didn't think Kurt could still shock her about anything . . . turned out she'd been wrong. Ugh, looked like she'd gone and pulled that card out of the trash can for nothing. Gross.

"That . . . that would be great. How does two sound?" Kurt smirked mischievously and mouthed the words 'hang up after this' to Mercedes. She smiled and nodded, shaking her head in amusement. He really was a drama queen.

"Sure Will, it's a date."

Click.

* * *

Will brought his cell phone from his ear and looked at the screen dumbly. Three minutes, fifty two seconds. Less than four minutes and he was more confused than when he began. Though, he had to admit, definitely feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"So . . . how did it go?" He jumped, startled. Embarrassed, he realized he'd forgotten Emma was there. He smiled.

"Good. Great, actually . . . Mercedes had been talking with Kurt over some video chat thing when I called. He's going to meet me at Penn Station tomorrow." Emma nodded, took a sip of her coffee, and smiled.

"Well good . . . I do have to ask you something though." Will nodded.

"Okay . . ."

"Any particular reason you just sounded like a high school boy with a crush?" He blushed, and stared at her in shock. She laughed. "Well, I do see that look that was just on your face. . . and that tone. . . just about every day, Monday through Friday, at least . . ." Will tried to shake his surprise.

"Emma, I'm 32 years old . . . I think I'd know by now if I liked men. . ." She rolled her eyes, and he narrowed his.

"Please Will. There are married men with children that don't realize they're homosexual or bisexual . . . and really, I've guessed the later about you for years." Will stared at her in disbelief.

"He's 18!" She took another sip of her coffee.

"So?"

"He was my student!"

"And? _Was_ is the operative word there, Will. . ." She sighed. "I think it would do you a world of good to be open minded about this. . . I think you may have feelings for him." Flabbergasted, Will waited for her to stop looking at him and start laughing . . . to say that she was joking. She didn't.

"You're serious."

"Serious as my psychology degree, Will. Look, just think about it. I have to get back to my hotel and get some rest before my flight." She smiled, stood, took his chin and guided him to look at her. "I want you to be happy . . . I don't ever want to see you looking the way you did earlier ever again. . . promise you'll try?" He sighed, frowning slightly.

"I'll try."

"Good. I'll see you soon . . . and please call me?" Will nodded, and Emma left. He shook his head and raised his now cold cup of coffee to his lips to take a sip.

Then he remembered something, and he smiled.

_He called me Will._


	5. Chapter 5

**AN** Oh man guys . . . I really think you're going to like this one.

* * *

Pennsylvania Station was unbelievably crowded, and Kurt was slightly ruffled by the sheer amount of bustling people. It was the first time he'd been here – he had flown into Manhattan and hadn't had a reason to step foot in this crazy place before today. It was like its own underground city – there weren't this many shops in the mall back home, and it was a little unsettling. He'd been told there were a few sit down places to grab something to eat or drink, and realized that "few" was an exaggeration. Besides the Amtrak waiting area – which only allowed it's passengers to sit in their enclosed area, seating was limited to about ten booths in a cramped section. The coffee shop where he'd asked Will to meet him was thankfully on the far right of the overpriced-fast-food-block-in-a-box, and had it's own little barstool-table-booth setup . . . luckily for him, the last seat closest to the entryway was unoccupied.

Ordering himself a small iced tea and regarding it with disgust after witnessing the liquid sugar product they had dumped in his cup, Kurt sat down and plopped his notebook on the table. The notebook was a ruse, he didn't really have an assignment for observing trends at the station, though he mentally slapped himself on the back for his own genius quick thinking – if the assignment had been existent, he'd definitely be able to take notes here. . . there was quite the mix of the faux-pas to the fabulous milling around. Scribbling a few lines on the paper so as not to have to explain himself for anything, he jumped when the sound of someone clearing their throat made him push too hard on his mechanical pencil, the lead breaking under pressure. He looked up, and nothing. It was just the guy next to him who must have had his bagel go down uncomfortably.

Kurt shook his head. . . he was nervous and his hands were shaking. He glanced at his watch, and saw that it was only quarter of two. He sighed. What had possessed him to call the damn thing a date? He thought he had been sly in the moment, having Mercedes hang up on Will like that, but now that it came down to it, not knowing how Schuester had reacted to his statement was driving him practically to nervous breakdown. It must have been Will's proclamation that he'd missed him, that he was worried about him, that got his courage up to a level it didn't belong. Kurt knew Will well enough to know that the older man had a bit of a bleeding heart, that he was too nice sometimes to realize the impact of what he said or implied.

"Kurt?" The young man nearly jumped out of his seat and almost knocked his sorry excuse for tea to the floor. Had he had less practiced control over his facial features, his jaw surely would have dropped. _He actually came._ The thought came, followed immediately by the surprised: He looks _good._

"Holy shit, Will. What patron saint of fashion died and slapped _you_ with the Armani stick?" Schuester chuckled and sat down, still smiling.

"It comes with the job, I guess." he sighed, and watched as Kurt busied himself with closing his notebook and pushing it aside. "How have you been?" The younger man shrugged.

"Okay, I suppose. I'm ahead in most of my classes, except for one that I'm kind of kicking myself about not taking care of in high school. Didn't think a fashion institute would care so much about it, but I guess general elective requirements are pretty much the same everywhere. . ." Will was watching him and waiting for him to continue, Kurt noticed, and couldn't help the smirk that crept up on his features. This was an amusing topic to start up with, one he hadn't expected, but ironic all the same.

"Spanish." he said to Will's unspoken question, and the older man outright laughed.

"Really." Kurt nodded and then shrugged.

"How about you? How's Broadway treating you?" The frown that overtook Will's face at the question caught Kurt off guard. What the hell?

"It's not what I expected. . . by a long shot. Don't get me wrong, it's great to be able to continue working with all these talented people, but the way they preform . . . it's like somewhere along the line someone took the joy of it right out of them. They all seem to have this, "Sign my paycheck and get me out of here" attitude, and it's starting to become more depressing than fun. . ."

"That. . ." Kurt began, shaking his head. "That's horrible. What the hell's the point of even doing a job like that if you don't enjoy it? Aggravating, really . . . I mean, I'd give my Prada collection to be up there doing what they're treating like a chore!"

"Then why haven't you?" Kurt's eyes widened, and Will's narrowed slightly. "Really, Kurt. . . I've been thinking about this for a while, ever since auditions closed for our last show. You haven't even stepped foot on a stage since graduation, have you?" Kurt looked up at the ceiling, anything to get his eyes out of lock with Will's glare.

"I have my reasons."

"Really. And what would those be?" Bringing his gaze back to Will, Kurt sighed.

"You, actually." He began, and watched as Schuester's face turned from aggravation to confusion. "Don't take that the wrong way Will, it's just. . . how am I supposed to go and audition on Broadway and know that I got a part without wondering if a good word from you is what got me there?" Will blinked.

"Shit." He said simply, then rubbed his chin in thought. "I get it. Damn."

Silence reigned for a few minutes, and Kurt was starting to get uncomfortable watching Will sitting there with his brow furrowed, deep in thought. Suddenly, the older man's features brightened, and Kurt jumped when Will slapped his hand on the table.

"I have an idea." he said with a smile. "You're not completely out of practice, are you? I mean, if I were to hand you some music right now, would you be able to sing in . . ." Will checked his watch. "a few hours?" Kurt looked at him a bit apprehensively.

"Maybe . . . probably. If I knew the song. . . sure. What are you getting at?" Brown eyes practically sparkling with excitement, Will held his hand up in the classic, 'one minute' gesture and plopped his briefcase on the table. Riffling through it's contents, he finally found what he was looking for and pushed the papers across the table. Kurt glanced at them, then did a double take and stared.

Defying Gravity.

"Will . . . I . . ." The young man flipped through the sheets of paper, not that he needed to, but because it was a distraction. "I . . ."

"Don't tell me you can't, because I know you can. . . you threw that F during Glee Club, and maybe you fooled everyone else, but you didn't fool me." Taking Kurt's silence as confirmation, Will continued. "Look, they're holding auditions for Elphaba at five. . . Usually it's more of the production department that does the casting, and they ask for my input only if they're not sure of more technical aspects, so . . ."

"They will though, Will. . . it's a female role." Will smiled and shook his head.

"It's Broadway, Kurt. . . do you know how many times Peter Pan has been cast as a woman? If you're good enough, and I really think you are, they'll put you in a wig, paint up your face, and send you onstage." Kurt smiled, feeling his eyes begin to water.

"I don't know if green's my color . . ." The younger man deadpanned. "I'm kidding. . . you really think I could pull off the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"I'm not the kind of person to set people up for disappointment, not on purpose anyway . . ." the older man smiled. "I really think you'd make a great witch." Kurt couldn't help it, and he laughed.

"I need to warm up . . . You want to get out of here?" Fumbling a bit with putting his notebook into his messenger bag, he gulped back a pinch of nervousness. "My . . . um, my apartment is a few blocks away . . ." Chancing a glance at Will, he noticed the man had gone stock still. "It'd only be for an hour," he added quickly. "Just enough time to go through some scales and freshen up. . . I mean I understand if. . ."

"That's fine. . ." Will sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Kurt, before we go, can we talk about something? I just don't want things to get. . . awkward." Kurt closed the cover of his bag, the magnetic snap sounding a bit too loud to his ears. Shit. Here comes the rejection. He nodded and looked up to meet Will's eyes.

He was surprised to see him smiling. . . one of those affectionate, but cautious smiles that promptly turned Kurt's insides to mush.

"I like you." Kurt's eyes widened, and Will held up his hand. "Wait, I'm not done. . . I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about even the idea of this. . ." Kurt gulped.

"Go on." Will sighed.

"Look. . . biologically, I'm old enough to be your father. It kind of freaks me out. Add on to that the fact that you used to be my student, and I think you can understand why I'm having a bit of a moral issue here. . ." Kurt frowned.

"Okay, Will, I get it. . . thanks for letting me down easy."

"That's _not_ what I'm doing!" The wide eyed look of surprise on Kurt's face caused Will to take a deep breath. "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. There's more I need to say. . . I'm not as brave as you are, Kurt . . . I kind of brushed off the whole questioning my sexuality stage in high school . . . I had Terri, and so it wasn't something I bothered with. . ."

"You should have; she was a bitch." Will laughed, and shook his head in amusement.

"In retrospect, yes, probably should have realized that a little sooner." He smiled. "I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately." he had the decency to blush before continuing. "It was last year, about a few months before graduation, when I noticed that during a conversation with Emma, that I was checking out her boyfriend."

"He does have a nice ass." Will stopped and looked at him in surprise. "Well, he does. . .nice teeth too." Schuester chuckled. "I'm sorry Will, usually when I'm talking about noticing these things it's with Mercedes. . . girl talk, you know?"

"Kind of makes me wonder what you've been saying about me." Kurt blushed crimson.

"I . . . I don't think you're ready for that yet. . ." Will chuckled nervously, running his hand through his hair, cheeks heating up.

"No . . . no, probably not. Um . . ." He laughed again. "Wow. . ." Kurt bit his lip to keep from laughing himself, and stood to put his hand on Will's shoulder.

"Come on, It's starting to get late and I still have to warm up my voice." Will nodded, his gaze going to the hand on his shoulder, staring at it for a second before shaking his head and getting to his feet.

"Don't forget your . . ." Schuester started and abruptly stopped as Kurt made a bit of a show of bending down to pick his bag up from off the floor. ". . . bag." Kurt laughed.

And then he winked.

"I have a nice ass, too."

* * *

Good God, What the hell had he gotten himself into? Gulping, nodding, and blushing one shade short of tomato red, Will placed his hand on Kurt's back and directed him to the exit of the crowded dining area. A couple of steps was all that little endeavor took, and he jammed his hands into his pockets. He should have known that Kurt was going to be the type of person to put on a show – to know how to tease someone in just the right ways, however subtle. It was like wakening a sleeping monster – in a good way, an exciting way that had him practically tripping over himself as the two of them made it out of the train station and onto the crowded streets of Manhattan.

He looked to his left, to Kurt, who had the most self satisfied little smirk on his face. They were both silent, and the silence was starting to get to him. He'd be damned if he knew what to say – he was still having a little trouble getting over the impromptu ass wiggle from five minutes ago. When Kurt stopped and reached into his pocket, Will followed his hand with his eyes. Keys. He was pulling out keys.

They'd reached his apartment, and Kurt was humming to himself as he motioned Will inside. It was a nice place, subtly colored, but definitely designed with a keen eye for placement and detail. Will really hadn't expected anything less. He stood in the doorway awkwardly, and Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Go sit down. The couch is pretty comfortable, and there's juice in the fridge. . . homemade iced tea too, much better than that swill they serve down at the station." Will nodded, and opted to skip the drink and just sit down. Kurt shrugged, told him he'd be back in ten minutes and went to what Will assumed was his room.

He was a little disturbed by how much he felt like he as acting like. . . a virgin? That was probably the best word for it. In a way though, he figured he was. . . he'd never even considered getting into anything with another male before. Checking people out was one thing, but the opportunity to maybe do something about it was something else entirely. For fuck's sake, Kurt's hand on his shoulder earlier had positively tingled. With the younger man following it up with his little shake . . .

What the hell, William. That's the third time you've thought about Kurt's rear end in less than a half hour. Get a grip.

"You done staring off into space, Schuester? We have to get going." Will's head shot up and he looked to the clock. Where had the last twenty minutes gone?

"Um, yeah. Sorry. You ready?" Kurt broke into a grin.

"_I think I'll try defying gravity, and you won't bring me down!" _

The smile that plastered itself onto Will's face practically hurt. Holy shit. Kurt had not only hit the F but pushed it two notes higher.

"Good?" Kurt asked, but he wasn't really asking. He knew what Will's answer was going to be. The older man shook his head and laughed.

"Shut up, you know it was. That was . . . that was awesome." Kurt beamed, and then faltered a bit.

"You really think I've got a shot? This. . . this is really big for me, you know?"

"Believe me, I know. Remember what I always told you guys before competitions? Just go out there and have fun. . .not only does it make you feel better, it makes you do everything you do one notch higher than someone who just doesn't care." Kurt nodded. "Hey, um . . ."

"What?" The younger man was practically jumping with anticipation, and Will couldn't help but get excited himself.

"I'm going to leave ahead of you. . ." Kurt frowned slightly, and Will just shook his head. "You want to get this part without my help, so it won't do to have us walking into the theater together." Understanding dawned on the younger man's features and he nodded. Will got up from the couch and approached the door, plucking Kurt's hand from the knob. He squeezed his hand, looked off to the side for a minute as if thinking, shook his head, and blushed.

"You alright, Will?" The older man laughed nervously.

"Yeah," he said quietly, then brought Kurt's hand to his lips and kissed his fingertips. "Break a leg."

Red faced and, well, kind of giddy, he ran out the door.

* * *

It was down to three people, Kurt included, and Will was starting to get a little nervous. They were all stellar performers, they usually were at this stage of auditions, and he could tell that his co-workers were having a tough time. Son of a bitch, they'd better not. . .

"William. We could use a little help here." Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

He took a deep breath and made his way over to the producer and casting director.

"What's the problem?" Out of the corner his eye he saw Kurt glaring at him. Not good.

"We've narrowed it down to two, but we think we may need a tie-breaker vote." Glancing down at the sheet that was wisked into his view, and seeing the names, he smiled but shook his head.

"I can't do it." he said simply. "Conflict of interest."

"What the hell are you going on about, Schuester?" Will leveled a look at the producer and frowned.

"I'm talking about law-suit sized conflict of interest. I can't pick one of those two names because one of them was a former student of mine, and I'm quite biased. Seeing as I can't be fair about it, and I'm not in the mood to get sued, I'm going to decline to answer. Comprende?" He hadn't been shouting, but he definitely had made sure to be loud enough that the three people on stage could hear him. Turning around and walking back to his seat, he sighed. "Just do your jobs and pick the person you think is going to do the best in the role." The casting director growled slightly, obviously annoyed but, and probably because, he knew Will was right. He whispered in the producer's ear, and he nodded.

"Right. Fine. Well then. Kurt Hummel, come and get your script."

No. Way.

Will had been almost sure after seeing the names on the list that they were going to go for the female option, especially since ninety-nine percent of the time, that's what those two bozos _did_. . . he hadn't wanted to tell Kurt of this, didn't want him to lose his courage to try . . . and when he had been called up to the desk, he figured that was it. Turned out they were probably looking for a reason _not_ to give Kurt the role, the pricks, and it backfired on them.

Will turned to the stage, and he smiled. He knew Kurt was probably over the moon with excitement, but he hadn't yet gone down to grab the script he had rightfully earned. Instead, he was allowing himself to be hugged by the girl Will knew to be the runner up – an instance where the girl's gesture of congratulations for the young man had turned to tears. He thought for a moment and then walked back over to the desk.

"Hey." He started, and the two looked up in curiosity. "What do you say we make that girl there understudy?" The producer laughed slightly cruelly.

"Why, was that your student, Schuester?" Will rolled his eyes and grit his teeth. God he hated this buffoon.

"No. Kurt was. I would never refer to someone as 'that girl' if I knew their name." He glanced at the paper on the desk again, tapped her name, and pointed to the stage. "Vanessa did well, and while I agree with you, not as well as Kurt did, she's definitely qualified to be understudy." Will noticed the crying had stopped, and a quick glance revealed Kurt grinning with admiration and Vanessa staring in absolute shock.

"Ugh. Fine, Mister Director. . ." he said with venom, and Will swore that if he had the power to fire that bastard, he would. "Vanessa, come up and get a script as well."

Will nearly had to plug his ears from the squeals that erupted.

* * *

"Pick up, pick up. . . Damn!"

Will looked to his companion. Kurt seemed to be so excited he was practically jumping out of his skin. They'd been walking back from the theater, it was a beautiful night, and since grabbing his script he'd been focused almost entirely with dialing and redialing his father.

"Hi . . . Dad . . . look, I need to tell you something and I had to call you first, but I'm not telling you over voice mail . . . I'm going to call Mercedes and then I'm going to leave the line open for you to call me back. I don't care what time you call, just do. I have fabulous news."

Will smiled, sighed, and shook his head.

"Kurt . . ." Will was a little surprised when Kurt ignored him, and started dialing again.

"Come on . . . MERCEDES!" Stepping back from the volume the young man projected, Will decided to reach over and hit the speaker button on Kurt's phone.

". . . be so damn _loud?_" She paused. "I heard echo, you did not just put me on speaker, did you?"

"I did, Mercedes, fair is fair."

"Oh. Hi Mr. Schue. Kurt, what the hell is up with you screaming in my ear? Honestly, a girl could go deaf!" Kurt's grin, which had been plastered on his face for the last half hour, finally softened.

"Mercedes . . . I made it." There was silence for a few seconds, followed by Mercedes' loud reply.

"Oh my God! Broadway? Are we talking Broadway, Kurt?" he laughed.

"Yeah."

"Oh my God! What are you doing? Details, _details!_"

"Wicked. Elphaba. I totally _nailed_ Defying Gravity. . ."

"Oh wow. WOW! Rachel Berry eat your heart out. I _knew_ you could hit that damn note. Hot damn. Are you two still doing your little date thing?" Will chuckled, and Kurt looked at him a little guiltily.

"Kurt kind of got a little excited about his accomplishment and forgot about me for about thirty minutes. . . but I think it's still on." Kurt shot Will an amused, falsely offended look, and Will shot it right back at him. Mercedes laughter came through.

"Kurt, baby, I love you, and I'm so happy for you, but you're on a date and you really should get off the phone. And Mr. Schue. . . If you hurt my man Kurt, I'm going to hurt you. Bad. Sulfur and Brimstone bad. Got it?" Will blinked in surprise, and then nodded.

"Got it?" Mercedes repeated, and Will only then realized she couldn't see him. He had become distracted by the fact that the two of them had just made it to Kurt's doorstep.

"Y-yeah. I got it. Um . . . I think Kurt has to go now though. . ." Will reached over to pull the phone out of Kurt's grasp, turned off the speaker, and lifted the device to his ear. "Bye, Mercedes." he said, and dropped the phone into Kurt's pocket, deftly and quickly moving his fingers into the loops of Kurt's jeans and guiding him closer. Will's heart sped up when Kurt gulped and licked his lips – he was obviously nervous, and Will would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't nervous as well.

"I think . . ."

He began leaning forward. . .

"we need"

Millimeters away,

"to make this official."

Their lips met, a kiss that was slow, gentle and unbelievably sweet, lasting only moments but filling him with such an incredible feeling of joy he was half ready to dance all the way home. . . but that would involve letting go, and he wasn't quite sure he wanted to do that at the moment. Kurt hadn't said anything, and Will wasn't sure what kind of sign that was, so he looked at him. The younger man's eyes were closed and he seemed to be trying to steady his breathing.

"You alright there, Kurt?"

"I'm" he chuckled. "I'm trying not to faint, actually." he smirked. "How lame is that?" Will laughed.

"Pretty lame. Pretty flattering too. I'd love to do this again soon. . . before we get too busy with Wicked. . . give me a call, alright?" Kurt nodded and Will kissed him on the forehead. "Talk to you later." he smiled softly. "Get some rest, today's been a little crazy."

"Crazy fabulous. I really can't see a day get much better than this." Will smirked. He could think of a few . . .things that he wasn't going to think about doing because he was going to be a gentleman, goddammit! At least for a while anyway. . .

"I, uh, I have to go." He blushed, and walked backwards down the walkway. "Call me, alright?"

Kurt nodded and watched Will take off down the street, still rather dazed.

Then he realized he no longer _had_ Will's number, and swore . . . Mercedes might though. It was on her caller ID when he called yesterday. . . he just hoped she didn't go and erase it. Swearing again, Kurt was already redialing as he ran inside.


	6. Chapter 6

The instant Kurt woke up the next morning, he grabbed his phone. His attempt to call back Mercedes, numerous attempts, he growled inwardly, had failed. For some reason, his friend just was not answering her phone, and besides the worry of getting Will's number off of her, his concern was escalating regarding her safety. This just wasn't like her at all . . . there had never been a time since he could remember that she hadn't been just a phone call away.

If that wasn't enough, his father had become equally unreachable. At first, he assumed that he was just out with Finn's mother – his stepmother, and taking advantage of the "empty nest." He was starting to doubt that this was the case. . . worry was starting to break into panic regarding his dad. . . If he'd had another heart attack while no one was around . . .Kurt shook his head. No. He just couldn't think about that.

Failing again to make contact with them, he decided to get on with his morning routine. It was the only distraction he could think of at the moment. Going through the motions helped, but couldn't ease his worries entirely. He was so stressed by the time he finished his shower and skin care regimen that in trying to prepare his breakfast, he nearly broke out in tears when he saw his milk had spoiled.

About ready to just sit down and cry it all out of his system temporarily, the doorbell rang – startling him so badly he could envision someone being called in to scrape him off the ceiling. Putting his hand on his chest and taking a few calming breaths, he approached the door.

It wasn't just one person behind there, he realized absently – there were sounds of multiple shuffling feet accompanied by the unmistakable click of heels on hardwood. Kurt was puzzled. It wasn't like he gave his address to just anyone, and he couldn't wrap his head around who would possibly be visiting him quite so early in the morning.

He only needed to open the door a crack, when the sight of a hideous, but oh so familiar checked flannel shirt made him practically throw the door off its hinges.

"Dad!" Kurt leaped at the man and hugged him tightly, burying his face into his father's chest and trying ever so hard to choke back tears. Burt laughed lightly and returned the embrace. Relief flooded through the younger Hummel, his stress from the morning melting away. _He's okay_. . .

Abruptly remembering that there had been heels clicking, he lifted his head to notice Rachel standing behind his father – What the hell was she . . .

It made sense immediately when he saw Finn standing next to her, smirking and lifting his hand in a wave. Kurt smiled and then turned his gaze to the person on the other side of Finn . . . and then it was too much. His eyes started watering.

"Mercedes!" he quite literally squealed, and jumped to embrace the woman. She laughed.

"Happy Birthday, honey." Kurt let go of her, eyes widening, before he fumbled with pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking the date. Sure enough . . .

"Boy, you are _not_ going to tell me you forgot your own birthday!" He blushed, shaking his head.

"I guess I got a little distracted . . . This week has been busy and after yesterday . . ." Mercedes smiled and chuckled lightly, shaking her head.

"I still can't believe . ." she began, and Burt interrupted her.

"What. . ." he began. "What happened yesterday?" Kurt smiled at the curiosity on his father's face, but then faltered slightly. He didn't think he was quite ready to tell Burt about Will yet, and knew he was going to have a hard time keeping the whole thing under wraps, especially with Mercedes here. Thankfully, there was the topic of his newly acquired part to distract from the topic of his love life.

"Why don't we get out of the hall first." Kurt started, grinning. "I can hardly be a good host for my guests under these conditions." He led the small group inside, motioning them to the parlor, then excused himself to the kitchen. Mercedes followed him, offering to help – he knew she mainly wanted to gossip, but didn't mind in the least.

Pulling a block of cheddar, a knife, and a cutting board out to hand to Mercedes, he then went puttering about his kitchen to grab the crackers out of one cupboard, mugs out of the adjacent, and coffee from under the cabinets. Then he cursed. Mercedes looked at him in confusion, and he sighed.

"I'm out of milk." he said simply, and his friend smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Why don't you call your _boyfriend_ to pick you up some?" She asked, eyes glittering with amusement. Kurt flinched and looked quickly to the people in the other room. Thankfully, no one had been paying attention. Burt and Finn were wrapped up in some sports conversation and Rachel was busying herself with leaning on Finn, trying to nod at appropriate moments in the discussion. Kurt sighed in relief.

"Not so loud about that yet, okay? I have to find a way to tell my Dad gently. Heart condition, remember?" Mercedes grimaced and nodded. "Besides," Kurt continued. "I don't have Will's number. . . I tried to call you last night and see if you still had it on your caller ID, but I guess you turned in early to get down here. . ." The young woman smiled and stopped slicing to rinse her hands in the sink. Kurt gave her a quizzical look as he watched her pull her handbag in front of her, searching through it. What the hell was she doing?

She must have noticed him looking at her, because she held a finger up to stop him before he asked any questions. Then he gasped in surprise as his friend slipped out of her wallet a very familiar rectangular object, mended by a few pieces of scotch tape. Momentarily, he froze in shock.

"You . . . Oh my god. You went trash picking!" Mercedes laughed and handed him the business card. She shrugged.

"What are BFF's for?" she said simply. Kurt hugged the object to his chest and jumped in excitement.

"I. . . I freakin' love you!" he pecked her on the cheek. "Be right back. . . I'm going to give him a call."

In the stress of the night before, he'd forgotten to put his phone on the charger, and seeing that it was currently beeping angrily at him in his pocket, he opted for the phone in his parlor rather than having his mobile device cut out mid call. Unfortunately, having to do so caused his guests to glance at him in mild curiosity. He just grabbed the phone off the wall and dialed, shrugged, and twisted his fingers in the cord. Luckily enough, they didn't ask any questions and went back to their conversations.

Will's "Hello?" forced him to turn and face the wall, unable to keep the stupid grin off his face. His stuttered, "H-hey." made him glance over at the people in his parlor again, nervousness making him paranoid. Apparently he had nothing to worry about, though the short silence brought Will's voice back on the line.

"Everything alright?"

"Oh my god, everything is better than alright. . . you would not believe who showed up on my doorstep this morning. . ." Will chuckled.

"Should I be jealous?" Kurt smirked, his cheeks tinting slightly at the thought of Will actually wondering such a thing.

"Hmm. I don't know. . ." he teased, and double checked to make sure no one was paying attention, particularly Finn. "I did kind of have the hots for one of them for a while. . ."

"Kurt. . ." the older man questioned, his worried upward inflection making Kurt's eyes glitter mischievously.

"You probably should head over here as soon as possible. . . Oh! And I could really use some milk if you could grab some for me." then he hung up, and had to bite his lip to keep from breaking out into a laugh.

"Who was that?" his father asked, and Kurt jumped slightly before turning around and examining his fingernails as a distraction for his upcoming half truth.

"Oh, um, an associate of mine. . ." Burt blinked in surprise.

"You got a job?" he questioned, and Kurt smiled.

"I guess you could call it that. . . I'll tell you all about it when he gets here. . . It's. . ."

"Get your lazy white ass back in this kitchen!" Mercedes interrupted, poking her head out of the doorway. Kurt smirked and obliged, shaking his head as he walked.

"I almost feel sorry for the lucky bastard that gets to marry you." He quipped and entered the room, mouthing a 'Thank you' to the young woman for the distraction. She nodded, and he continued his coffee preparation task. After measuring and setting the pot to brew, he leaned on the counter to wait. Mercedes had finished up her platter and handed it to him with a face full of false attitude.

"You know Kurt, you might want to stop just hanging up on him like that. . . I mean, it's damn funny, but kind of rude. He better have a good reason for pulling that shit with me last night too, or I might have to smack him in his curly head." Kurt smirked and blushed lightly, tapping his lips with his finger - the only way he figured he could communicate what had happened without saying it aloud. Her eyes widened.

"Oh really . . ." she started, and the doorbell rang. Kurt handed her back the platter and nodded his head in the direction of the parlor. She took it and sighed, rolling her eyes. "You owe me details later, sweetie." He nodded, then took the few quick steps necessary to get to the door.

Smoothing his hair and shirt briefly, he opened it, a smile creeping onto his face.

"You. . . are infuriating. . ." Will greeted. He was obviously trying to look irritated and annoyed, but the way his lips kept turning upward made the action a lost cause. Kurt rolled his eyes.

"You love it." he replied, and Will just shook his head in amusement. Noticing the half gallon of milk in the older man's hand, Kurt smiled.

"Aww. . . you brought me a birthday present. How sweet!"

"You asked. . . wait. . . it's your birthday? Why didn't you . ." Kurt stopped him by holding up his hand.

"I forgot. Got a little distracted yesterday." He winked, and Will blushed lightly. "Come on, I want to show you the awesome surprise I got this morning."

"If it has anything to do with glitter or Barbara Streisand, I'm going home." Kurt bit his lip and faked a frown.

"That's too bad . . . I mean, there's no glitter, but that girl on my couch is pretty much the closest to Streisand that I know . . . ugh, probably the nose. . ." Will peeked into the doorway, and abruptly pulled back away, eyes wide.

"You had the hots for Rachel Berry?"

"Ew! God no! That's just . . . that's just. . . no!" So flustered as he was, it took him a second to realize that Will had been joking and was trying ever so hard not to burst out laughing.

"Ugh. Touche." he rolled his eyes and sighed. "Apparently you didn't notice that Finn and my father are also in there." he smiled. "Mercedes too." Will chuckled.

"So you honestly got me all riled up about someone I already knew you used to have a crush on in high school." He scoffed. "You suck." Kurt smirked.

"You wish."

Whatever retort Will had ready must have boiled straight out of his head with the heat coloring his cheeks.

"Sorry. . ." Kurt smiled, but didn't look apologetic in the least. "I can't help being so extraordinarily witty." After waiting a few moments for Will's face to regain a semi-normal shade, he continued.

"Come on, they're going to start to wonder what the hold up is."

The two of them stepped into the room just in time to hear Finn's first 'genius' statement of the day. He was looking to Mercedes, and said in all seriousness and appreciation:

"You cut good cheese."

The 'are you _stupid_' look that Mercedes shot at the quarterback was enough to make Kurt snigger, and Mercedes looked up and smiled at them, then nodded to his companion.

"Hey~ Mr. Schue. . . nice to. . ." She was interrupted and Will wasn't able to get out so much as a greeting as Rachel's surprised squeal and Finn's 'No way!' shot through the relative quiet of the room. After Finn bumped knuckles with the older man and Rachel just bounced a little on her heels, the light-bulb seemed to go off in Burt Hummel's head.

"Kurt," Burt began, and the younger Hummel's head snapped to semi-nervous attention. "Didn't you say something about Schuester doing something with directing on Broadway?" Kurt nodded.

"I did. . ." he began, and noticed a realization dawning in his father's eyes, a smile lightening his features. Unfortunately, the same epiphany was hitting Rachel, and the grin that had been on her face just moments ago was quickly being replaced by jealous fury.

Shit.

"You . . ." She began, clenching her fists and whipping her head up to glare at the young man. "You were saying earlier that he was your associate. . . and that means. . ." Kurt just looked at her expressionlessly.

"It means I made it. I'm playing Elphaba in this years production of Wicked."

The nearly simultaneous "That's awesome!" exclaimed by Burt and Finn was drowned out by Rachel.

"That's impossible!" She yelled, and Kurt glared at her.

"That's right, princess, I made it before you did. Suck it up." The young woman stomped over to Kurt and jabbed her finger at his chest.

"You! You're not even at the same _level_ as I am. . . I've taken _years _fine tuning and practicing!" She narrowed her eyes. "Who did you bribe, Kurt? Who did you _screw?_"

The horrified chorus of "Rachel!" was deafening, and she had barely gotten the word 'screw' past her lips when Schuester cut in front of Kurt, effectively stopping her jabbing. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his temper under control.

"Rachel . . .He got the part on his own. I really wish you'd be happy for him . . . I understand your jealousy . . . but the fact remains that he's an extraordinary performer, and he's only getting better. . ." Rachel glared.

"Right. So, I suppose you had _nothing_ to do with it? Excuse me if I find that rather hard to believe." She scoffed.

At this point, Will could see from where he was standing that Burt appeared to be about half a hair from blowing up. Schuester held up his hand and gave him a look to tell him "I've got this."

"I cited conflict of interest for an anonymous party. I really had nothing to do with it, short of telling him when the auditions were."

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "Right. . . It's common knowledge that it's not what you know in the biz, but who, and he. . ." she eyed the young man with nothing short of contempt. "He's _not_ as good as _me. I_ am the star, not him. . . he's just a talentless nobody who probably found the right producer to . . ."

She didn't get to finish.

Will snapped.

"Goddamn it Rachel, grow up! Look, I dealt with this in high school because you were only a kid back then, but you're a goddamned adult now! You are in this man's house, on his birthday, accusing him of being a cheat and a whore just because you can't wrap your infantile mind around the fact that someone is as good, if not better than you! You are talented, Rachel, fantastically so, but your attitude is nothing short of appalling! If you want the reason you're not landing roles, that's it! No one wants to hire a spoiled, overbearing, brat!" He clenched his fists, bit his lip, and stared to the right at nothing before exhaling heavily. "I need to go outside for a minute." Kurt flinched at the sound of the door slamming, and looked to Rachel. She was crying.

"I. . .I'm sorry, Kurt. . ." her voice hitched. "I was out of line. . .I'm going to go." She turned to Finn. "You were right, I shouldn't have come here. I'll meet you at the hotel." Turning to leave, Finn grabbed her by the hand.

"He. . . Mr. Schue was right, you know. . . that was. . ." He shook his head, and Rachel nodded.

"I know." She replied, and choked back a sob, then looked back to Kurt.

"I'm really. . . very sorry. . . I guess I have a lot to think about. Um . . . congratulations. . ."

She all but ran out the door.

"Well that went well." Mercedes broke the silence, and turned to her best friend. "You okay, Kurt?"

Kurt shook himself out of a shocked daze and nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I . . .um . . .I'm going to go check on Will. . ." She smiled understandingly, and Kurt walked to the door, ignoring his father quietly questioning "Will?" and missing the look the man shot to his stepbrother. Finn had replied by shrugging and grabbing another piece of cheese.

* * *

Closing the door silently behind him, he found Will leaning against the wall adjacent to his apartment. Before he could say anything, the older man grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry I lost it in there." he stated, planting a kiss on the top of Kurt's head. "She just. . . after you were so careful to do things the right way . . .for her to say those things about you. . . I'm sorry you had to go through that." Kurt smiled into his chest, absently playing with his necktie.

"I did egg her on." he muttered. "She was just so damn incredulous that I'd accomplished something she hadn't. . .she pissed me off." Kurt sighed. "Don't beat yourself up about it too badly, Will. She needed to hear what you said. Honestly, it was probably best coming from you anyway. . .if you hadn't stepped in when you did, my father probably would have torn her a new one." Schuester chuckled.

"You're probably right." he said and Kurt rolled his eyes.

"No, I'm definitely right. I know my dad, and he's got a great ability to be straight forward and harsh when he's mad." Kurt laughed. "You, on the other hand. . . I mean you were really pissed . . . but you took time to compliment her while bitching her out. . ." he smiled gently. "You're such a softie, William." Will chuckled, and for the second time, but under much different circumstances, Kurt took enjoyment in the feeling of the vibrations of the older man's chest when he laughed. It was just so. . . nice to have someone to be so protective of him, and not only that, to have someone want to hold him after being cruelly and unjustly attacked.

He didn't know where Will stood on their whole relationship, he assumed the kiss from last night and the 'make this official' statement meant he could use the 'boyfriend' label. . . the big L word had yet to be muttered, but Kurt was okay with that for now. He didn't know if he was confident to say it himself yet. What mattered was that right now, he felt safe. Right now, he knew that there was someone who cared for him on an intimate level – something that he never thought he would experience so strongly . . .

"What are you thinking about?" Will asked. Softly smiling, he lifted Kurt's chin with his finger to look at him. Kurt blushed.

"Um . . . mostly about how pleasant this whole standing in your arms thing feels. . ." he smiled, and shook his head. "That came out a little sappy, huh?"

"Sure did," he replied. "But I really don't mind."

"Hmm. So what were you thinking about?" Tracing Kurt's jaw with his fingers, Will smiled.

"You. . . called me William. . . and I kind of liked the way it sounded coming from you." Kurt laughed.

"Really. Do . . . do you have some sort of. . . name fetish or something?" Will blinked, surprised, and blushed, dropping his hand from Kurt's jaw.

"Um . . . n-not that I know of. . ." Kurt smirked, tugging his partner a little closer by his tie.

"Really." he murmured. "Because you seemed to make a big deal about me calling you Will after you caught me belting out 'On my Own.'" he brushed his thumb over Will's lips, licking his own. "That was all about you, by the way." The brown-eyed man gulped, eyes transfixed on the young man before him.

"I – I knew that." Ghosting his fingers over Will's jawline, Kurt smiled softly.

"Yeah . . ." he breathed. "I figured you did." he lifted himself to whisper in his partners ear. "So . . . _William_," Will shuddered. "Now that I know about this. . ." Kurt simultaneously grabbed his ass and nipped at his ear, and Will's breath hitched. "You're _screwed._"

"K-kurt . . ." he gulped; his mouth had gone dry. "What are you . . . _doing?_" Kurt smiled devilishly.

"Thanking you." and then he was placing kisses on Will's neck, nibbling, soothing, maddening kisses that made Will weak in the knees, forced him to have to grab onto something, and that something ended up being Kurt's ass. Kurt gasped in surprise, retaliating by yanking Will's tie and crushing his lips to the other man's in a frantic, passionate dance . . . nipping and tugging and then returning to Will's neck, as he gasped and writhed and, fuck was that a moan?

"K- Kurt . . .we . . .we have to . . . we have to stop . . ." Kurt hummed into his ear and Will shuddered. "F-fuck . . . Kurt . . . you're . . . everyone is . . . waiting for you inside . . . and . . ." The younger man grinned wolfishly, locking impossibly aquamarine eyes onto currently darkened brown.

"You _really_ should have figured me to be an exhibitionist, _William._"

"_Fuck._" he practically whined and when Kurt tried to lean back in, he grabbed him by the waist and held him there, trying and currently failing to calm the pounding in his chest, to slow the breathing that was coming out in staccato gasps. "We . . . I have to stop. . . dammit Kurt, do you have any idea . . ." Kurt just smirked, and brought his hand to Will's thigh, brushing it dangerously close to . . .

Will squeezed his eyes shut and banged the back of his head on the wall, and Kurt leaned forward once more to whisper into his ear.

"_You_ have _no_ idea. I know _exactly_ what I'm doing . . . and one of these days, _Mr. Schue_, I'm going to teach _you _a thing or two."

Kurt smirked, gave Will a kiss, and left him outside.


	7. Chapter 7

**NOTE: There has been a slight edit made to the chapter. I made a mistake in writing something that's very important to the rest of the fic regarding the Wicked aspect. It's in the last section of the chapter, and the change is small, but extremely necessary. Thanks!

* * *

**

Kurt was looking downward and still smirking when he waltzed back into his apartment. . . he truly hoped Will wouldn't follow him inside, though knew the older man probably couldn't. . . there was more than likely a rather pressing issue he had to take care of beforehand. . . Kurt repressed a chuckle and closed the door behind him.

"I put away your milk." Finn said quietly, and Kurt nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise – he had not seen or expected him to be standing there.

"Oh. . . um. . . thanks, Finn." Moving to brush past the taller man, Finn grabbed Kurt's shoulder to stop him.

"We. . . we need to talk."

Oh hell no.

"A-about?" Finn just looked at him, and somehow in that look, Kurt knew. . . oh, he was fucked. Finn heard something. . . he _knew._

"What's going on over there?" Burt asked loudly, and Kurt developed the all too cliché 'deer in headlights' look. Finn sighed and poked his head through the doorway.

"Nothing to worry about, Burt. . . just going to go have a bro chat with Kurt. . ." he didn't wait for a response, grabbed Kurt's arm and practically dragged him to the first room he saw with a closeable door. . . which ended up being the bathroom. After closing the door, he spun around.

"What the hell is going on?" Finn hissed and Kurt flinched, then tried to control his features.

"I don't know what you're talking about. . ."

"Bullshit, dude! Ugh! I'm going to have to stick a friggen' toothbrush in my ears to clean that sound out of my brain. . ." Kurt scoffed.

"The nose is an easier access point." He deadpanned. Finn looked at him incredulously.

"Dude. . .Mr Schue? _Really?_ He's. . . old, and our teacher. . . and. . . and he's Mr. Schue!" Finn practically whined. Kurt sighed.

"Semantics." he replied, rolling his eyes.

"I don't know what that word means." Finn said, frustrated. "And I really don't care. . . Couldn't you find someone your own age? Or at least. . . not. . . dude, it's like catching my brother making out with my father! What the hell!" Kurt frowned, momentarily disturbed, then sat on the edge of his tub.

"Please, don't look at it that way. . ." he finally said. The way Finn had put it, it suddenly made things feel. . . wrong.

"How am I supposed to look at it? Dude, you're the closest thing I've ever had to a brother, or ever will have. . . and Mr. Schuester. . . He's my fucking mentor, man! Do you have any idea how weird-ed out this makes me feel?" Kurt shot to standing, eyes blazing in sudden anger.

"This isn't about you, Finn! And when it comes down to it, I'm not your brother, and he is not your father, and fuck! Why is it that I'm getting so much crap from you for going out with an older man, when if I was seeing a much older woman, I'd be king fucking shit?"

"What are you . . ." Finn began.

"Remember Noah? Back when he was like, 16? That fucking kid screwed around with half the MILF's in Lima . . . and you know what he got? Popularity. Slaps on the back. Fucking 'Way to go' and 'You da man!' So why the hell am I getting shit about being 19 years old and seeing someone who's 32, when Puckerman was out fucking 35 year old women at 16 and getting _congratulated?_"

The bathroom door whipped open in that instant, banging onto the wall with a sickening crack.

The only thought that raced through Kurt's head in that moment was a desperate 'Oh god, no. No.'

'No.'

Burt looked at Kurt for only a second, but it felt like a small eternity. Then the older man turned to Finn, and leveled a look at the tall quarterback.

"You. . . get out of here. . . I need to talk to my son." Having been on the receiving end of Burt's fury before, Finn didn't ask any questions, nor did he argue, but just made his way out the door. Burt looked to Kurt and sighed, then turned around to examine the door, noticing the knob had left a small hole in the drywall. He shook his head.

"Kurt, calm down and sit down, you look like you're about to have a panic attack." he said upon glancing at his boy, then continued. "I'll, um . . .I'll grab some spackling to fix that hole up before I leave. . . don't want you to lose your deposit or anything . . ."

"D-dad?" Burt turned back to his son and smiled, and Kurt just looked at him in confusion.

"He. . . " Burt paused. "He make you happy?" Kurt nodded dumbly, then replied.

"Very."

"Good. . . He uh. . . he. . . seems like a good guy. I like the way he sticks up for you." Burt nodded as if confirming to himself what he had just said was alright. "I'm going to go talk to your idiot friend about his double standards again. Come on out when you're ready." Kurt just stared at his father, first in shock, then melting into nothing short of pure adoration. He couldn't help the tears that came; he truly had the best dad in the world. He walked over to give his father a hug.

"I love you, Dad." Burt laughed.

"Me too, kiddo . . . Let that guy know though, in the spirit of fair warning . . . if he hurts you, and I'm not talking the minor, stupid fights you'll inevitably have. . . but if he hurts you . . . I'll drag him back to Lima myself and string him up by his toenails on the goddamn goalpost. Got it?" Kurt smirked.

"Loud and clear." Burt nodded and left the room, and Kurt slid down the wall in his relief. His dad knew. . . he was okay with it. . .and damn was he glad there was no heart attack involved with him finding out. He himself had probably been closer to one when his father had stormed the door. He was about to get up when Mercedes came running into the room, concern etched on her features.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" she asked and Kurt nodded.

"Yeah. I think I underestimated my father." he smiled. "How's he doing with Finn?"

"They actually having a pretty toned down conversation. . . Oh man, Kurt, I tried to stop him from rushing on in here like that, but he heard everything. . . you guys were yelling way to loud. . ." Kurt shook his head.

"It's fine." He laughed. "I can barely believe it, but it's _fine_. I'm honestly more worried about Finn right now."

"Why? What . . ." Kurt frowned.

"He's kind of disgusted. . . I mean, I'm used to his little homophobic comments by now. . . but this was more than that. . . there's something else bugging him. . . I think I'll wait for him to cool down a bit before I talk to him, though. He's having a little trouble processing the whole thing." Kurt sighed, and Mercedes shrugged.

"He's going to have to get used to it, Kurt." She smiled. "I really don't see you and Mr. Schue breaking things off anytime soon. What the hell happened in the hall, anyway?" Kurt blushed.

"I, uh, I got a little carried away." Mercedes raised an eyebrow and Kurt continued. "He's probably not going to be back for a while. . . I think I got him a little worked up." The young woman shook her head and smiled.

"You're terrible." She laughed. "Poor Mr. Schue."

"He didn't complain too much." He smirked.

"I wouldn't think he would. . . you are fabulously adorable, and I know enough from our little girl talks that you're just about the biggest freak I know." Kurt slapped his friend playfully on the arm and grinned.

"You flatterer! I assure you, though, I'm an angel. Completely sweet and innocent." She scoffed.

"Yeah, angel, right. . . more like a succubus with a halo wearing leather hot pants in July." Kurt laughed.

"Ugh, leather hot pants, Mercedes? Really?"

"That's the part you choose to deny?" Kurt just chuckled.

"Alright, alright, enough . . . I'm starving, let's go make lunch." Mercedes rolled her eyes.

"Hell no, I'm going to order us some goddamned Chinese or something – it's your day, and you are not cooking." He smiled, nodded, linked his arm with his best friend's and headed back to the parlor.

* * *

Will had opted to take a walk, desperately in need of a distraction from the events that had just occurred in the hallway outside of his boyfriend's apartment. Good god. . .did Kurt have to be such a tease? The guy went from affectionate to predatory in seconds. . . and the goddamned name thing. . .

He had almost lost it when Kurt had spoken his parting line. . . if the younger man hadn't run inside the moment he had, Will had a feeling that his partner would have been the one pushed up against the wall, and Will would have been the one to put him there.

God, his own name had never sounded so . . . _dirty. . ._

He growled inwardly. Distraction! He _had _to stop thinking about this . . .

Birthday. It was Kurt's birthday . . . well fuck, what do you get for someone you've been dating for two days, have known for years, and who was driving you completely out of your mind? He blinked.

Emma. He'd call Emma. She'd know what to do. . . at least he hoped so. He frowned momentarily. It was a school day. Should he really call her at work about something like his? Dammit, but he needed to talk to someone. . . Fuck it. He dialed.

"Guidance office, Emma speaking." he let out a breath and smiled. Right. Guidance office. Perfect.

"Emma, it's Will. Do you have a minute?"

"Oh! Hi! Just one second, okay? I just have to give a student a few pamphlets she requested. . .hold on." He waited. "Okay, back. Oh, Will I was going to give you a call a little earlier. The most amazing thing happened. . ." Will blinked.

"Really . . ." he was interrupted before he could ask what was going on.

"Remember Noah Puckerman? Stayed back last year, behavioral problem . . ." Will stopped mid-stride, and ducked himself under an awning, away from the other pedestrians on the street.

"Of course I do . . .what did he do?"

"Well he came into my office with a bunch of other students . . . like thirteen or so of them, and had a motion signed by Figgins . . ." Will gulped . . .this wasn't . . .

"Glee club's been reinstated into the curriculum. . . and until we get a more appropriate director, I'm heading it." The smile that broke onto Will's face was enormous.

"That. . . that's incredible! Puck, huh? Damn, who would have thought." he mused, and Emma chuckled.

"It's probably part of some scheme to get girls or something, I know . . . I really don't mind though."

"Oh wow. I can't wait to tell Kurt! This is . . . Emma, I'm so . . . Thank you. And thank Puck for me, too."

"Of course." She laughed. "Speaking of Kurt, how are you two doing?" Will sighed, and leaned up against the building he was standing next to.

"Em, he's . . . fantastic. . .but he's driving me absolutely crazy. . . I can't stop thinking about him. . . the whole thing's a little insane, but I just can't bring myself to care. . ."

"Aww." She replied. "Will, I'm so happy for you. . ."

"He's actually the reason I called. . . It's his birthday, and I'm completely stumped about what to get him."

"Hmm. . .Well I wouldn't go too crazy Will, maybe a CD or some lotion or something."

Will blushed. Oh god, there was no way in hell he was getting Kurt lotion. . . the implications of it. . .

"I'm not getting him lotion, Em. Not happening. And . . ."

"Why not? He seems to be pretty focused on . . . Oh!" she paused and must have come to a realization. "Oh, you're right . . . probably not the best choice. Um . . ." Then she laughed. "There's always those books you're teasing me about reading."

"Emma!" he turned beet red. "No! Trust me, he does _not_ need any more encouragement in that department."

"Oh Will, you're so fun to tease." Will bit his lip and shook his head in amusement.

"Yeah, Kurt seems to think so too. Seriously though, I need some ideas . . ." Emma sighed.

"You're thinking too hard, Will. Just take him out for a nice dinner or something. Something classy. I think he'd like that." he shook his head.

"I think his father has something planned for tonight. Oh, I didn't tell you about that . . . Burt, Finn, Mercedes, and Rachel are here visiting . . . I'm assuming for the week, but I don't know for sure."

"Oh that's right! It's spring break for them, isn't it? We had ours last week . . ." she sighed. "Oh . . . Will . . . oh that must be uncomfortable with Kurt's father around."

"It is a little, the worst of it so far has actually been with Rachel . . . Kurt landed a part yesterday and Rachel found out this morning and completely flipped out on him. . . and then I ended up yelling at her pretty badly. . ."

"How bad?" He sighed.

"She accused him of sleeping his way in, and called him talentless. . . I feel a little bad about making her cry, but she really needed to be put in her place, you know?"

"Will" Emma said. "She respects you. Highly. Hard truth coming from you is probably the best thing you could have done for her at this point. Don't feel bad about it. . . she wouldn't have started crying if you hadn't hit home. . . this could really turn out to be a good thing." Will chuckled.

"Em, you definitely chose the right profession . . . you're incredible at what you do."

"Why thank you. . .ooh, I have to go though, there's a student at the door. Call me again soon, alright?" Will smiled.

"Will do. Bye." He grinned, and turned to head back to Kurt's apartment, dialing his boyfriend as he walked.

* * *

"Hummel looney bin." Kurt answered, smiling into the receiver. His guests were enjoying their lunch, thankfully in a rather drama free manner. Will chuckled.

"Do you always answer your phone like that?" Kurt laughed.

"Only when I feel like it, and I had a feeling it was you." He smirked. "Feeling better?"

"Relatively. I took a little walk and had a chat with Emma. . . there's a few interesting things going on back at McKinley." Absently playing with the phone cord, Kurt grinned.

"I never pegged you for a gossip, Will, but please . . . continue." Finn's head rose in hearing the name, and then went back to poking at his lo mein.

"Noah Puckerman went and revived Glee club." Kurt's eyes widened.

"Are you serious?" he exclaimed, and then paused. "Wait, what's his angle?" Laughing, Will sighed.

"Emma seems to think it's probably some harebrained scheme to seduce women." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Probably. . ." The younger man scanned the room, and realized that the others within were probably eavesdropping. . .well, Mercedes and Finn anyway. He sighed. Oh well, best to warn the man before he showed back up.

"Funny you should mention Puck. . . he came up in conversation over here, too." Kurt said.

"Really . . ." Will began. "How'd that . . ." The young man bit his lip.

"Finn and I had a little fight." Upon hearing his name, the tall man's head shot up. Mercedes shot Finn a glare, as if daring him to say anything.

". . . that's . . . What happened?" Schuester questioned. Kurt sighed.

"We're busted." A sharp intake of breath was heard on the line. "Finn overheard us in the hall and wasn't impressed. . . and then my Dad heard Finn and I screaming at each other in the bathroom. . ."

"Oh god. . ." Will began. "Is everything alright? Are you okay?" Kurt smiled fondly.

"Dad took it amazingly well. Finn. . . not so much." Will sighed.

"Put him on the phone." Kurt's brow furrowed. "Finn, I mean. I want to talk to him before I come back over there." The young man looked to his stepbrother and sighed, then put his hand over the receiver to speak to him.

"Finn . . . um. Will wants to talk to you. You mind?" Finn let out a heavy breath and pushed himself away from the table. Then he walked over to put his hand out for Kurt to hand him the phone. Kurt did, and then took a few steps away, finding himself not knowing what to do.

"Come and eat, honey." Mercedes piped in, and Kurt nodded, sitting himself down. Finn walked as far away as the cord would allow, which was just enough to make whatever he was saying to Will an inaudible mumble. Five minutes stretched to ten, and Kurt nearly dropped the packet of soy sauce he was fidgeting with when he heard the sound of the phone being replaced onto it's base. Finn came up behind him and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, he's on the way up." The affectionate smirk Finn threw at him made Kurt's worries float out of him, and he nodded, following the other man to the door. Will was on the other side when Finn opened it, and the older man smiled, holding out his hand for a handshake.

"We good?" Finn nodded and shook. Kurt looked to the two of them in surprise. . . this was certainly a turnaround. Looking to Will, the hazel eyed man just shook his head. "Sworn to secrecy, Kurt. . . I'm sorry." Confused and slightly irritated Kurt went to close the door. . . and a familiar female voice shot from down the hall.

"Wait!" Rachel yelled while sprinting and Kurt briefly contemplated just slamming the door on her. . . what the hell was she doing back?

She must have seen the expression on his face, because she continued.

"Please? I . . .need to talk to you." Kurt sighed.

"You've got two minutes. We were just about to serve the cake, and I'm not going to be late for my own little choir." he said. Rachel pulled her oversized handbag off of her shoulder and reached inside, pulling out a small square object, unwrapped and placed in a plastic bag.

"I . . . um, I didn't get to wrap it. I would've but, I wanted to make sure to catch you before you did whatever you were going to do tonight . . . and um . . ." Kurt held his hand up and pulled the thing out . . . then put his hand to his chest and looked at her in no small amount of surprise. "It's the whole thing. . ." She said. "I mean, it's a bootleg . . . Broadway would hardly put out a CD with the entire production . . . but." She smiled. "I figured it'd be easier to practice Elphaba if you had material readily available to you. . . I . . ." Kurt bit his lip and felt his eyes start to water.

"T-thanks Rachel . . . this is . . ." he shook his head. "This is _really_ nice . . ."

"I . . . just wanted you to know how sorry I am for the way I reacted earlier." She rolled her eyes at herself. "I was just . . . I was so jealous. I, um . . . I actually had just been turned down for a smaller production of Wicked in California, for Elphaba, no less, and . . . now that I think about it . . . it probably had something to do with the way I presented myself." She looked to her feet and shook her head. "I was too cocky." she smiled sadly. "I mean, it's no excuse for the horrible things I said to you . . ."

"Stop, Rachel." he smiled. "I get it. Diva war's on hold." Rachel smiled hugely, then paused, seeming to remember something.

"There was one more thing . . . um, if you don't mind." She reached back into her bag and Kurt watched her curiously. Out came something that resembled a journal, black and littered with gold stars. "This . . ." Rachel said. "This is one of my treasures . . . I've got signatures from only the people I really respect and admire in here . . ." She smiled, and handed Kurt a sharpie marker. "I would be honored to have your autograph, Mr. Hummel."

Kurt put his hand to his mouth, touched, then held his hand out and took the book from her, flipping through the pages and looking through the names. It was an impressive list. Suddenly, he laughed.

"You signed your own name in here . . ." Rachel shrugged and grinned. Kurt shook his head in amusement, uncapped the marker, and proceeded to sign his name right next to hers on the page. Then he handed the book back to her and gestured her inside.

Will was leaning on his shoulder on the wall, having seen the whole thing take place, and was grinning from ear to ear. Rachel had paused in the doorway, and looked at him shamefaced. He then walked up to her and embraced her.

"I'm proud of you, Rachel . . ." He said simply, and let go. She positively beamed.

"Thanks, Mr. Schue. . . I really am sorry, and that means a whole lot. . . especially from you." Will nodded and then cocked his head in the direction of Finn. Rachel ran to her boyfriend and squeezed him. Finn smiled, returned the gesture, and kissed the top of her head.

"That's my girl." he said to her affectionately, then looked to Kurt and Schuester. "So who wants cake?"

* * *

"You outdid yourself, Mercedes." Kurt said appreciatively. . . his best friend had managed to find quite the cake, beautifully decorated with fondant sculptures and supremely delicious. Mercedes laughed.

"It's not like I made it myself, Kurt." He shrugged.

"Thanks the same . . ." he said, and proceeded to blissfully suck a rather large dollop of whipped cream from his fork and into his mouth. He nearly burst out laughing when he noticed that Will was quite openly staring at him. He winked at him, and the curly haired man looked away a bit too abruptly. Mercedes rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, you two. Get a room."

She realized her mistake almost instantly, and Kurt's eyes widened as he slowly turned his gaze to Rachel.

Rachel looked shocked . . . but not as scandalized as he would have expected. She blinked a few times, and looked from him, to Will and back again. Then, to Kurt's utter surprise, she smiled.

"That's . . ." She said. "That's kind of cute." Kurt's jaw dropped. The woman was smiling, hands clasped together in her lap and was bouncing a bit on her chair. "I mean, my Dads are like, ten years apart too . . ." A serious look overtook her eyes, and Kurt braced himself. "Mr. Schue is a good man Kurt, you'd better not hurt him." It took the young Hummel nearly a minute to gather himself from his shocked stupor.

"God, are you bipolar or something?"

Will and Burt's simultaneous and rather firm, "Kurt." made him quiet, and Rachel just laughed.

"No, Kurt . . . but, I mean, come on. . . you were there for that week that _I_ had a crush on Mr. Schue. I totally understand." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Ugh, I do remember that . . . it was horrifying." Kurt said and Will promptly choked on his cake. Kurt grinned and patted Will on the back as the older man tried to hold back his laughter and stop coughing. "You alright there?" Will nodded.

"I think it's time for a change of subject." Burt said, and Will agreed. Finn spoke up.

"How's the biz, Mr. Schue? They still casting for that deal that Kurt's in?" Schuester smiled.

"They're actually just making their final decision on Fiyero," he looked at his watch. "Should be getting a call about that soon, actually. . . then rehearsals start three weeks later."

"I hope he's at least good looking." Kurt said, and Will shot him an hurt look. "Oh come on, Will, give me a break. If I have to be making eyes at someone else, at least it'd be good to find them semi-attractive. It makes it more easy to be believable." Kurt rolled his eyes. "It's not like the script demands Elphaba to kiss the guy."

"Are you kidding? Elphaba and Fiyero's scenes are so sweet. . ." Rachel interrupted and sighed. At Kurt's look of disbelief, she grimaced. "Oh . . .I'm not helping, am I?"

"You have no tact at all." Kurt said and shook his head. As fate would have it, Will's phone took just that opportunity to ring. He went to get up to take the call in another room, and Kurt pulled him back down. Will shrugged and answered.

"Schuester. . ." he paused, listening. "Awesome, who . . ."

Then his face morphed with something a cross of shock and horror. He looked like someone had sucker-punched him in the gut.

"Wait. . . wait. . . say that again?" he bit his lip and looked to the ceiling. "What are his credits?" Releasing his lower lip from his teeth in the silent word 'fuck,' Will said his farewells and ended the call. Kurt looked to him, concerned.

"What's wrong?" Will looked to him, and sighed.

"They cast Fiyero. . . I had to double check if I was understanding them correctly. . . but. . ." Kurt frowned. . . why did he look so upset?

"So . . ." Kurt began, "What's the problem? Who is it?"

Will looked around the table, frowning heavily and then shaking his head. Finally, he answered.

"Jesse Saint James."


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: **This chapter was hell for me, and then these guys forced me to write something I've never attempted before. Enjoy, probably time jumping a few weeks next chapter. (Hard R, light NC-17 warning)

* * *

Kurt had gone utterly pale, and he wasn't alone. Rachel was shaking quite badly, and Will looked like he was going to be sick. Finn was watching his girlfriend with an odd but unmistakable look of discomfort before turning to level a knowing look at Will. Kurt watched that particular transaction with no small amount of confusion.

Rachel grabbed for Finn's hand and squeezed, and then also turned her attention to Schuester, then back to Finn, and finally to Kurt's father who, at the moment, just looked confused and semi-uncomfortable. Rachel was about to speak, when Burt excused himself to the bathroom. Kurt had a funny feeling that his father really just wanted to get out of the tense atmosphere, and he really couldn't blame him. Finally, Kurt broke the silence.

"What the hell is he doing in New York?" He murmured.

"He wasn't doing well in LA . . ." Rachel said quietly and Kurt turned his gaze to her in shocked surprise. "We, I mean, Finn and I ran into him at a coffee shop downtown." She began to explain. "We were pouring over old yearbooks and he came up to talk to us." She laughed a bit. "It was a bit of a shock, I mean, he was probably the last person on earth we expected to see again, let alone talk to."

"He made a really big deal about apologizing to Rachel." Finn said. "I kind of started to get worried about him starting to hit on her, but he didn't. He started talking about all the parts he'd been trying out for and just missing." Rachel laughed.

"He had no idea what he'd been doing wrong." She said. "I told him his emotionless attitude on stage was probably what was killing his chances." she chuckled again. "He actually looked surprised, and said that he'd try to do better with that when he went to New York." Kurt looked at her incredulously.

"You didn't think a warning might be nice?" He asked her, and she shrugged.

"He didn't say when he was going, and this conversation we had was months and months ago. Really though Kurt, is it really all that big a surprise that he'd try out for something on Broadway?" Kurt rolled his eyes in response. "Anyway," Rachel said. "The story's not done."

"I told Mr. Schue when we were talking on the phone earlier," Finn interrupted and looked to Kurt. "Jesse wanted me to hook him and you up." Kurt's eyes went as round as saucers.

"_What?_" he asked, and looked to Will who just engrossed himself in silently poking at his cake. Kurt's attention went back to Rachel having heard her slap Finn lightly on the arm.

"Finn!" she frowned. "Ugh. Well, he was looking through the senior yearbook while he was talking with us, and he stopped like, mid-sentence when he got to the New Directions photo. His eyes went totally wide and he said something under his breath. I only caught the 'he got handsome' part of it, and then of course I had to ask who he was talking about." Finn laughed.

"Yeah, after you stopped staring at him for almost a whole minute." he smirked.

"Well it is kind of shocking to realize your ex is checking out guys all of a sudden." She said huffily. "So anyway, yeah, he got all red faced and admitted he was talking about you, Kurt. That's all he really said about that right then, but after we had about a half hour or so of small talk he asked Finn to put in a good word with his brother." Kurt shook his head in disbelief.

"How did he even know about that? I mean, that Dad and your mom got married?" Finn shrugged.

"It came up after he said that thing about your looks. I said something about you spending too much time in the bathroom with all that junk you put on your face, and he asked me how I knew about it." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"It's not junk, they're moisturizers. This is just great, now I have to worry about the guy actually being attracted to me on top of having to pretend I'm in love with him onstage." Kurt spat out sarcastically. Remembering something abruptly, Kurt looked back to Will and frowned at his partner's distant attitude. Was he even paying attention? Kurt nudged him and the man looked up, a grim look lining his features. Then Kurt turned back to Finn.

"So, just how did this whole situation come up while you were talking to Will on the phone?" he asked Finn and the tall man grimaced.

"Promise you won't get pissed?" Finn asked and Kurt frowned.

"No. Can't say that I can." Kurt replied. Finn took deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking again.

"I was still kind of grossed out, and I told him I thought you should be with someone that was closer to your own age." He sighed and continued. "and, well, not your teacher. Then I told him that I could think of at least one person who liked you and was your age and um . . ." Finn squirmed a bit in his seat. "He asked me who, and that's when I realized I was being kind of dumb about the whole thing. . . then he asked me again, and I told him about what we just told you. . ." Kurt looked back to Will who was still silent – something that was slowly starting to get on Kurt's nerves. "Then he flipped out on me." Finn paused, thinking. "He said a lot of things that I promised him I wouldn't repeat to you." At this, the older man beside Kurt let out a breath that he must have been holding, and Kurt glared at him.

"Wonderful." Kurt said.

"It wasn't anything bad, Kurt." Finn said. "Sometimes a dude just has to talk to another dude. Like you do with Mercedes." Kurt growled.

"I'm actually a little more upset that you could even _compare_ Will to _Jesse_. I mean, I _really_ don't care about the age thing, Finn! I thought I made that perfectly clear. On top of that, Will's a really good man, and Jesse's a _douchebag!" _Finn rolled his eyes.

"I know that! Like I said, I thought I was making a good point, and it took me a while to figure out that it wasn't." The quarterback sighed. "Look, the whole phone talk thing ended with me feeling a lot better about your relationship with Mr. Schue. Not because I wasn't still kind of feeling weird about it, but because it made me figure that it could be a lot worse – you could be with some creep, you know? At least I know he's not going to hurt you."

Kurt's retort died on his lips, and he smiled.

"Finn . . . I think that's the most brotherly thing you've ever said to me." Finn shrugged.

"I love you," Finn said, then he quickly added, "Not in the um, you know, kind of way, I mean, Rachel . . . but, you know." Kurt shook his head, amused.

"I get it, Finn. Don't hurt yourself." he smiled. "Thanks."

"Ugh" Mercedes said. "Alright, so now that we all know that Jesse may or may not try to bust a move on Kurt's dance floor, can we _please_ change the subject?"

"Mercedes!" Kurt exclaimed and she shot him a face full of attitude.

"You know, Kurt, I really think that those two," She pointed to Finn and Rachel. "Are making way too big a deal out of this. I mean, so what, the guy thinks your good looking. Anyone with eyes could see that. And asking someone to put in a good word with someone could have meant just about anything." She looked to Rachel. "You've always been a bit of a drama queen, girl. And you like your little plots and schemes just like Saint James did. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't just take the situation and make a left field romantic scenario in your head and then pass it on to your boyfriend." Rachel blinked, looked at Mercedes – looked like she was going to retort angrily – but then she paused.

"You know, you might be right. . ." Mercedes rolled her eyes.

"Of course I am. Now, what really bothers _me_ is how Mr. Schuester's gone all silent movie during this whole thing." Will jumped as all eyes fell on him, obviously waiting for some sort of response. He put down his fork and sighed.

"I've been thinking," he said finally. "About how to address something Kurt said earlier in the best way I could." Kurt frowned, and Will sighed, then turned his gaze to look at him. "I know you know how the 'As Long as You're Mine' sequence is supposed to be performed." Kurt's eyes widened, and Will continued. "It's probably one of the most passionate parts of the show, and it's not something that can just be blown off or dulled down or changed."

Kurt stood abruptly, his chair tipping over as he did so.

"I'm not kissing Jesse Saint Fucking James!" he shouted, and Will looked at him straight-faced.

"You had a problem with the scene before you found out who was going to be Fiyero. You said something about the kiss specifically not being written in the script. You knew that Elphaba had that scene before you even tried out, and you knew how the scene went regardless of the lack of details that scripts lay out for the performance. I know this because I know that your knowledge of musicals is so extensive. What I can't understand is why you were trying to play dumb about the whole thing."

Kurt stared at the man, his mouth opening and closing, but no words spilling out. Finally, he spoke.

"I didn't think I was going to actually get the part when I tried out." Kurt said quietly. "I mean, who gets a shot at Broadway on their first try?" He paused. "I didn't think the whole thing through, and I just went for it. I mean, you were so encouraging and so excited about me trying out that I couldn't say no. Last night, when I wasn't busy wondering about why Mercedes and my Dad weren't answering their phones, I was worrying about how I was going to pull off this role without feeling like I was cheating on you." Will's eyes widened.

"It's not cheating, Kurt. It's not you kissing Jesse, It's Elphaba kissing Fiyero." Kurt laughed mirthlessly.

"That's a little easy for you to say. You don't have to actually do it." he said and Will sighed.

"You think this won't affect me? I mean, yes, you're the one who's going to be doing the action, but I'm the one who's going to have to tell you two to 'do it again' or to 'be more affectionate' or . . . or to put more emotion into the kissing. I'm not going to be enjoying that part very much either, you know."

"I'm worried that I might." Kurt said quickly, and Will gaped at him.

"What?" The young man sighed at his boyfriend's suddenly narrowed eyes.

"Well, you want me to be honest with you, right? I mean, how do you expect a sexually frustrated teenager to react to kissing someone who's arguably rather attractive?" He paused, and Will stared before turning to the other people in the room.

"Could you guys, um, take a walk or something?" Mercedes nodded; Finn and Rachel followed her lead, and Finn intercepted Burt in the hall, asking him if he wanted to head down to the hardware store. The older man frowned a bit, but then shrugged and nodded. When the door closed signaling their exit, Will turned back to Kurt.

He stood, and with one fluid motion put his hand at the center of Kurt's back and pulled him into his arms.

"So," he said, in a voice nearly a full octave lower than normal, "Do you find _me_ 'arguably attractive'?" Kurt's eyes went wide and he stuttered.

"Y-you know I -" he began, but didn't get to finish as Will crushed his mouth onto his, twisting and taunting him with passionate kisses, pulling at Kurt's lips with his teeth then soothing them with his tongue.

Kurt found himself feeling lightheaded, intoxicated, and he would have fallen had it not been for the wall he suddenly found his back pressed against, and the man who had him pinned there. He tried to breathe, but his breath was cut short in a shuddering gasp. Will had latched his mouth onto his neck, sucking on a particularly sensitive spot – oh that would leave a mark – and working his way up to Kurt's earlobe which he licked, tugged, and muttered nonsensical things at, hot breath causing a shiver to run through Kurt's entire being, the hair on the back of his neck sticking up and heat pooling downward like warm syrup – cloyingly sweet and impossibly heady. He moaned.

"Is this payback from this morning?" Kurt asked curiously, and Will responded by grabbing Kurt's ass, pulling him closer, and stopping just a fraction from grinding against his partner. He licked his own lips and inched them closer to Kurt's.

"No." he whispered. "You said you were frustrated." he punctuated his statement by closing the distance between their hips, mewling with the glorious friction the action caused, nearly losing himself with Kurt's strangled gasps echoing through the apartment.

Kurt opened his mouth to speak and Will silenced him once more with his lips, backing off slightly from his grinding to slip a hand beneath the fabric of the younger man's jeans, teasing the smooth skin under his fingertips. He paused for only a moment before deftly unfastening the garment, bringing one hand under the fabric to squeeze his partner's ass and the other hand to pull the pants down and away from the area he was so eager to bring into focus. He glanced at Kurt when the man tensed briefly. Had he less control would have come on the spot from the positively wonton look in his partner's eyes. Will smiled softly before trailing his fingertips to center and wrapping his hand around the young man's throbbing member, pumping in maddeningly slow motions, watching his partner's eyes alternate between squinting and rolling in the back of his head. Will took his free hand and gently guided Kurt to face him.

"Look at me." Will whispered, and Kurt did, mindlessly pumping himself into Will's hand before locking eyes with his. Will smiled and brushed his thumb along the other man's cheek, fixing him with a watery eyed smile.

"I love you." Will whispered.

Kurt shuddered, pumped twice more, and came.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: **Holy shit is JSJ fun to write. Totally writing a St. Hummel after I'm done with this fic.

* * *

"Well, this is a surprise." Mercedes muttered, and Kurt frowned into his cell phone. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me. It's been a week!" Kurt sighed, closed a notebook he'd been jotting designs into, and rolled back in his desk chair.

"I'm sorry Mercedes; I've been busy." Kurt said and she humphed.

"Too busy to call your best friend? God Kurt, he's just a man." The young Hummel laughed.

"Not with Will, actually. I've had to rearrange my classes over at FIT and memorize the lines for Wicked." he shook his head. "I haven't even seen Will in person all week. He's got a lot to take care of down at the theater." he smiled. "You know you could have picked up the phone, too." She sighed.

"I'm just giving you a hard time, Kurt. Things have been kind of busy here, too. I'm a little disappointed you haven't seen your boyfriend, though; I was looking forward to some gossip."

"Just some chats over the phone. There hasn't really been anything new or exciting since my birthday. . ." Kurt said and Mercedes chuckled.

"You never did tell me what happened when we left that night. All I know is you guys seemed _really_ awkward when we got back in." Kurt blushed at his best friend's leering tone. Oh, if she only knew.

"I'm not going to go into graphic detail, but things definitely got interesting." He said with a laugh. "Will ended up frustrated again."

"Kurt, you seriously have to stop doing that." Mercedes said jovially.

"Trust me, he did it to himself that time." he said, then smiled wide. "He told me he loved me." Mercedes squealed.

"Oh my God, really? That's awesome!" she exclaimed and then paused. "You told him you love him back, right?"

Kurt bit his lip and he frowned.

"No." he replied simply.

A rather long silence followed.

"Kurt." Mercedes began. "What are you doing to that man?" Kurt sighed.

"I don't like to just throw that word around. It's overused and cliché, you know? I just want to make sure this whole thing isn't a big crush or just based on lust. . ." Mercedes growled.

"That's bull, Kurt. You . . . I know you better than you know yourself sometimes, I think, and you are way out of crush and bang territory here. You don't look at _anyone_ the way you look at him. Hell, I don't think we've had a conversation in years that he didn't pop into." Kurt groaned.

"I'll tell him when I'm ready."

"Tell him what?" She asked coyly, and Kurt blinked in surprise, his heart doing an awkward flip. Chalk one more up for his BFF.

"You're damn good, girlfriend." he said with a laugh, and she chuckled in response.

"Just tell him, Kurt. Love's cliché as hell anyway, and everyone sounds like an utter sap when they confess it. You're totally nuts about him, I mean, look at how stressed you are about this whole thing. If you didn't love him you wouldn't be so insanely concerned about telling him." Kurt let out a slightly dreamy sigh.

"I suppose you're right again, Mercedes." he laughed. "You should totally change your major to psychology."

"Hell no." She said. "I have enough psychos to deal with. I mean, look at my best friend!"

"Touché" Kurt replied with a smirk, then glanced at his clock. "I have to get going, Miss Thang; I have to see a man about a dress." Mercedes chuckled.

"For Wicked?" she asked, and he smiled, examining his nails.

"Well, obviously. They need to specially fit me and figure how much padding I'm going to need."

"I'm sure you'll look fabulous, honey . . . I'll let you get going. Call me! And before the week's over, alright?" Kurt smiled, and with a goodbye 'Ciao,' ended the call.

* * *

Will groaned. Today was turning out to be one of the worst of his week. Galinda's bubble was having safety inspection issues, the sets that were supposed to have been finished three days ago were now being estimated to be done two days later, and he had just had his second cast member come in because they were missing a page out of their script.

After sending 'Boq' home and trying to tune out the disgruntled man's ramblings, Will muttered some rather scathing words about the production staff under his breath. They, of course, were nowhere to be found, and Will's aggravation was escalating – this was supposed to be a team effort, and the team had been temporarily whittled down to him alone. Today really couldn't get much worse.

"William Schuester."

Apparently, it could.

It wasn't hard to recognize the voice addressing him, and Will had to take a deep breath to keep himself professional before turning around to greet the familiar, smug smirk that had been directed at him.

"Jesse." Will said flatly and crossed his arms over his chest. Jesse humphed lightly, and approached Will, handing him a stack of paper. Will took one look at what he recognized as a copy of the script, and his arms fell to his sides as he groaned.

"Not another one." Will said shaking his head, and Jesse cocked an eyebrow. "Missing pages?" Schuester asked, and the young man nodded. "This is the third one today . . ." Will muttered, flipping through the various documents littered on the folding table he called his desk. Finally, he found a copy and after confirming that it was complete, he handed it to Jesse. Jesse smirked.

"Moving up and still have to do paperwork, huh?" He said simply, and Will merely stared at him for a moment. He certainly didn't expect any small talk from the guy.

"I have a few lazy co-workers." He replied, and Jesse shrugged.

"It's definitely a few steps up from a minor league Glee club in Ohio." Will cringed and grit his teeth. Wonderful. Same asshole, bigger role.

"That 'minor league' Glee club took Nationals twice while I taught there." he growled. "And we stomped all over Vocal Adrenaline last year." Jesse smirked.

"Well, they never did recover after I graduated. I suppose it was lucky for New Directions that I refused to let Carmel fail me to keep me there." He shrugged, and then held out his hand. "Cast list?" Jesse didn't so much request as he demanded, and Will set his jaw grimly as he picked a sheet of paper off his desk and gave it to the man. Watching Jesse skim the sheet and seeing his eyes widen in sudden surprise, Will had to resist the urge to smack the look off of his face.

"Before you ask, I had nothing to do with casting." he said and Jesse smirked.

"I hardly assumed such a thing. I'm here, after all." he paused. "Kurt Hummel, huh? It seems I underestimated him." Jesse frowned, and Will's aggravation spiked. "Are you sure he's going to be able to pull this off?" Jesse's mildly curious expression met narrowed eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Will asked, and Jesse chuckled.

"I mean that he and I weren't exactly friends, and some of our scenes get a little. . ." he licked his lips and Will clenched his fists. _"Affectionate."_ Jesse leered.

Will barely restrained himself from punching the man.

"Kurt is a very talented man." he replied, his voice low and spiked with venom. "He can handle himself just fine." The blue-eyed man shrugged.

"No need for theatrics, Schuester, it was just a question." He said. "Personally, I think this role's looking better and better by the minute." Jesse set the cast list back onto Will's desk and turned to walk out of the theater. He stopped at the door and smirked. "If you see Kurt, tell him I think he'll enjoy working with me." The young man's smirk faded into a rather predatory grin. "I'm good at _everything_ I do."

He walked out, and Will grabbed a water bottle off the table and threw it at the door.

* * *

Kurt was pleasantly surprised when he looked in the mirror. The costume designers had done a fabulous job. Sure, he wasn't 'green' yet, but he could definitely picture pulling off the entire look. The wig – long, wavy, and pitch black – fit quite well, effectively covering his much lighter hair color. The long black velveteen dress had been padded a bit at the top to make it appear he had something there and the waist had been altered with wire to give him the appearance of a female's curves. Putting the pointed black witch's hat on his head, he had to repress a giggle. They'd really outdone themselves, and he was starting to get quite giddy about the whole thing.

He jumped a bit when the bell on the boutique door rang, and then frowned after listening to the receptionist announce that the '3 o'clock' had arrived. He'd been enjoying his little moment quite thoroughly and was a bit disappointed that it had to end soon – at least until rehearsals started. The designer, a lovely woman by the name of Kathleen, called him out to inspect her work.

The woman beamed when he exited, and she fussed over him a bit, taking a few measurements and then standing to rub her chin thoughtfully.

"I think I'm going to take it in about a half inch." She said to him and smiled. "It'll make you look like you have a little more waist and a bit more of a curve." She pinched a small section of the fabric and told him to take a deep breath and then relax. "Is that alright? You can breathe fine, can't you?" Kurt smiled.

"You could probably get away with a full inch, but I wouldn't recommend it." he laughed. "I'd like to be able to move." She nodded.

"Well, with my designs and your lovely fine features I'd say you're going to do a stellar job of passing yourself off to be a very pretty witch." Kurt laughed and thanked her, and she smiled.

"If you'll excuse me Miss Elphaba, I have to get to Mr. Fiyero . . . he get's impatient."

The smile wiped off Kurt's face in his surprise, and he slowly turned to see Jesse sitting barely fifteen feet away from him.

The guy was openly staring.

Turning away and silently hoping he wouldn't have to actually talk to the man, he frowned when he heard the sound of designer shoes coming from behind him.

"You look nice." Jesse said, and Kurt spun on his heel to shoot the man an annoyed but slightly confused look. Had Jesse just complimented him? Well, whatever.

"I know I do." Kurt replied, and Jesse smirked. "What do you want? I'm a busy man, and I really would rather not waste my time in your presence." Jesse's eyes widened in amusement.

"Ouch, harsh! Relax, Kurt. I'm just here for a fitting, not to start a cat fight." Kurt eyed the other man warily, and then sighed. The surprise of seeing him there had set his defenses up, perhaps a bit too high.

"You McKinley guys are hostile." Jesse continued. "I swear Schuester threw something at me on my way out, and you're biting my head off for appreciating your dress." Kurt might have chuckled at the absurdity of the statement, had it not been Jesse who spoke it or the mention of Will getting angry enough to start hurling things.

"And just what did you say to him to get him that mad?" Jesse smirked.

"Just the typical bad mouthing of New Directions." he began. "And for some reason he got really upset when I told him I was looking forward to working with you." Jesse shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he thought it was sarcasm. Though," he paused and smiled. "I assure you it was not."

Kurt frowned. Great. One, Jesse was definitely trying to flirt with him, and two, Will _really _needed to get those jealousy issues under control. Kurt sighed.

"Jesse, you can turn off the charm, because I'm so not interested." Jesse blinked in surprise, and Kurt continued. "I'm already involved with someone, and beyond the stage. . . not going to happen." Jesse shook his head and grinned.

"Glad you have some self-esteem Hummel, but you're slightly off base. I'm thinking trying to be friends would be a little more appropriate, seeing that we're going to have to work together so intimately." Kurt watched as Jesse lifted a hand, quite obviously trying to punctuate his statement by some sort of touch. Kurt slapped it away and glared.

"Friends keep their hands to themselves, Saint James." he frowned. "I don't trust you, and I probably never will – but you're right about one thing, and that's the fact that we're going to have to play nice for this production to work." Jesse rolled his eyes.

"Well, of course I'm right." Jesse paused. "So, I know this bar downtown that . . ."

"Jesse." Kurt growled. "I'm 19. On top of that, why would you think I would even consider . . ."

"They have karaoke on Fridays." He interrupted. "And I know the owner. I figure the best way we could get used to interacting with each other would be music." He shrugged. "A few drinks maybe, but you'd have to keep it on the down low so I don't get arrested for it." Kurt chuckled.

"Maybe I'd set you up." he said. "A little revenge for the shit you pulled with New Directions." Jesse laughed.

"You could, but it'd probably be a rather big pain to find another Fiyero anywhere near my talent level." Kurt leveled an incredulous look at the young man.

"Your ego just does not quit, does it?" he said and Jesse smiled.

"Nope. So, we have a deal?" Jesse stuck his hand out for a handshake and Kurt just stared at it.

"If you so much as make a lewd gesture, the whole thing will be off. I'm talking the acquaintance / friend borderline." Kurt glared. "Don't test me on this . . . I'm considering this a trust exercise, and if you fuck this up, I swear I'll find a replacement for your part myself." Kurt frowned when he realized Jesse was still smirking and still holding out his hand.

"So, deal then?"

Kurt rolled his eyes and shook the man's hand.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: **Ok, so the chapter's not a long one, but I felt this portion would be cheapened by doing more to it. Major Will/Kurt in here. :)

**AN2: I want to hear what you think about top/bottom, because that's going to be happening relatively soon. ;) I'm curious for your opinions on the matter.

* * *

**

Will leaned on the door to Kurt's apartment sullenly. Kurt wasn't home and Will wanted, no, _needed _to see him. The incident with Jesse had put the cherry on top of an already horrendous day, and he'd just been utterly miserable and overly snappy because of it. God, if that man tried _anything_ with his boyfriend . . .

Will sighed. How on earth had he gotten this bad? How had he gone from seeing someone as merely a very good student and an extraordinary performer to the gut wrenching, heart pounding, mental and physical _need_ to have him close? It was like the way he felt for Terri back in high school, before he married her, and before she completely lost her mind. It was like with Emma before he realized that Carl was better for her and his emotions settled down to a very fond and very firm friendship. Oh, but in some ways it was nothing like his feelings for either of those two. Kurt just had this _magnetism_. He drew him in. Grabbed him by the soul and pulled him into this strange place where he couldn't bring himself to care anymore about his former teacher/student relationship with the man. Even the difference of their age had stopped bothering him somewhere down the line.

Until Jesse had walked back into their lives – young, arrogant, and unfortunately handsome Jesse – with his smug, overbearing confidence, and his devious smirks. It made Will suddenly wish he was younger, that he had more to offer, that he could find something in himself that made him a better choice than that ridiculously talented, self-absorbed, prick.

It didn't help that Kurt had been so standoffish this week. Will knew they'd both been rather busy, he with the theater prep and Kurt with trying to get himself ready for the production as well as trying to tackle school. Part of Kurt's school troubles bothered him a bit as well. The guy was nearly failing Spanish but completely refused his help, and Will knew why. Kurt didn't want to get back into the feel of being his student again – it made him uncomfortable, and the younger man didn't want to push that particular issue because he knew it had been a rather sore, nagging moral problem with Will. Will, on the other hand, had grown beyond that and had tried to convince him that it wouldn't do to flunk because he kept mixing his French into his Español. He tried to emphasize the word 'tutor' rather than 'teacher,' but Kurt wasn't having it. So, he tried to let it go. It still bothered him.

What bothered him more was something a lot more selfish. Kurt had been positively awkward after last week's impromptu hand job in the parlor. Will had no doubt that the other man had enjoyed the experience, he'd reached orgasm after all.

Yet, he hadn't responded in kind with Will's proclamation of love. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe Kurt had mistook it for a heat of the moment exclamation, and maybe part of it was. But Will could not bring himself to regret saying it, because he really, truly did love the man. He knew that with utmost certainty. He was old enough and wise enough to know the difference between infatuation, crushes, lust, love, and being _in_ love. Emma was a crush. He had been infatuated with her, and he did love her – but at the core of it was that she truly was his best friend. She was always there for him, always had advice when he needed it, and she stuck up for him fiercely in a way that she did with very few others. Terri. Terri was complicated, because after what she had done it was sometimes hard to remember how he'd felt for her once – and he couldn't really blame himself for feeling that way after a betrayal as grand as hers. She was his first love, and at one point, she'd been his entire world. He'd married the woman, after all.

But she didn't hold a candle to Kurt.

The slightest thought that this could all end, that Jesse might be able to worm himself in-between them clawed his heart raw. After all, the heart could be a fickle thing, and manipulated the right way could seed doubt into such a new relationship. While the two of them had known each other for many years, and although he knew Kurt had been crushing on him for at least one of those years, how was he to know if this whole thing wasn't an infatuation on the other man's part? And Jesse was a master manipulator. He'd done it with Rachel, why wouldn't he do the same with Kurt? Sure there wasn't a national title on the line in this situation, but Will could hardly ask what would be 'in it' for Jesse. After all the answer was right in front of his face.

Kurt.

Kurt had just physically appeared, and was turning the corner, walking down the hall, head down and obviously deep in thought. Seeming to sense his presence, the younger man lifted his head and forced a smile upon seeing him standing there. There was nothing easy about that smile, and Will's heart dropped. It must have taken some effort on the other man's part to put it on his face.

"What's wrong?" Will asked, and Kurt just shrugged and fumbled with his keys until he managed to get the correct one in the lock, turned it, and opened the door. Kurt motioned him inside and finally replied after putting his keys on the coffee table in his parlor.

"I had a run in with Jesse." Kurt said, and Will inhaled sharply. He licked his lips nervously.

"And?" Kurt bit his lip and looked off to the side, then limply motioned to the couch.

"Sit down." Will did, exhaling heavily the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Kurt sighed and approached him slowly, before putting his arms around Will's neck and straddling him on the couch. He stayed in that position for a few moments, just hugging him, and Will brought his hands around to return the gesture. Will wasn't about to complain about the action, but he was definitely worried. Something was wrong. Kurt finally leaned back, and the look – anxious would be putting it lightly – he fixed on Will was bothersome.

"You're not going to like this." Kurt said, and Will gulped. "I'm just going to be blunt; I don't think being anything less than straightforward is a good idea in this situation. Don't blow up until I finish, okay?" Will's eyes widened. Dear God, what the hell?

"Jesse and I are going out on Friday night."

Will felt something crack inside, and he squeezed the waist of the man atop him more firmly than he had been seconds earlier, if for no other reason than to keep himself from shaking less than he currently was. Kurt's eyes widened, as if realizing something.

"Oh God, Will that came out so wrong. It . . . It's not a date or anything . . . it's more like interaction practice. Just karaoke and a few drinks to loosen us up so we can try to figure out how to be more natural on stage. . ." Kurt shook his head when the look on Will's face didn't seem to ease in the slightest. "I made it clear to him that I was involved and wasn't interested in him. I . . ." Kurt didn't get to finish as Will's miserable voice cut him off.

"Interaction practice? You really bought that?" Will wasn't yelling or raising his voice in any way, but Kurt cringed just the same. "Kurt, he tricked you. If going to a bar on a Friday night with someone who's interested in you isn't a date, then I don't know what is."

Kurt hung his head.

"I know." he said, and Will's eyes narrowed slightly, his heart in his throat. "I know what his intentions probably are, but I had to agree to it. He's right about one thing. If we don't learn how to interact without looking like we're going to kill each other, how are we supposed to act madly in love on stage? I mean, I might be able to pull it off, but it'd still be a bit half baked, and Jesse . . . Jesse's not used to being emotional on stage. He's too much of a fucking robot. If there's any chance of this production getting done properly, then he and I _have_ to get along. We _have_ to work on this." Kurt's voice cracked, and Will flinched, disrupting the slight glare he was currently leveling at Kurt.

"This is my big break, Will – my _dream_. I don't want to crash and burn on the ground before I get a chance to fly . . ."

Will gulped and pulled Kurt into his arms, embracing him tightly and squeezing a few tears out of his eyes. How in the world was he supposed to say 'no' to that? How could he deny him that? Oh but the idea of it – it killed him, took something from within him and sliced it in twine, gripped his heart in a vice and shook it violently. He wanted to tell Kurt no. He wanted to . . . but still . . .

"Okay." Will croaked out, and Kurt leaned back and looked him in the eyes, searching for what, he didn't know. Kurt kissed him then, slowly and full of such emotion that Will could feel his heart lightening, the stress lifting bit by bit and softening around its jagged piercing edges. Kurt pulled away slightly, the younger man's breath tickling Will's moistened lips, and Will wanted nothing more than to have Kurt's lips back on his, a balm to melt away the aching in his heart. But Kurt just pulled back a little more when Will tried to lean back in and Kurt put a finger to the older man's mouth. He brushed his hand to the right and cupped Will's cheek, his eyes watering in unshed tears, projecting a touch of awe and no small amount of affection.

"William. . . you have no idea. . ." Kurt breathed "how much I . . .appreciate . . ." Kurt sighed. "This whole thing is so damn hard. . . . and your support. . ." Will's shaking hand reached to clasp Kurt's hand on his cheek.

"I love you." Kurt whispered, his voice cracking again with emotion, and then his lips were once more on Will's, renewed with passion, they lit Will on fire and caused the weight in Will's chest to lift completely – to evaporate. _He loves me_. Will thought to himself, over and over. _Oh . . .oh thank god. . . he loves me._

It was a mantra that made him shudder, to positively tingle with joy.

Kurt's kisses were changing, a rapturous accelerando approaching allegro. Will was lightheaded, lighthearted, dizzy – Fuck, he was flat out drunk with the taste of him, high off the feel of Kurt's hands working underneath his shirt, touches like snowflakes on wildfire, a euphoric chill running down his spine and ending in pulsing warmth at his core.

Buttons snapping off their threads, Kurt showed no mercy to Will's cotton blend shirt, running one delicate hand up and down to worship his chest, and the other to coax easier access to Will's neck, sucking and nibbling at it before licking up to and exhaling hotly in his ear.

Will whimpered and arched his hips, grinding against Kurt's clothed member in desperate need for friction. Both moaned simultaneously, delicious heat lighting nerve endings that Will had nearly forgotten he had.

Oh, he was going to come in his pants like a goddamn virgin if Kurt didn't slow the fuck down.

Kurt was not slowing down.

Will's pants suddenly ceased to be a problem, as Kurt slid off the couch, taking the garment down with him. He smirked.

"No underwear, Will?" Kurt murmured huskily. "N-ice."

"Wha. . ." Will began but didn't finish. It was a wonder he didn't lose it right there. Kurt oozed sex. His heavy lidded, darkly polished aquamarine eyes were gleaming, his cheeks were blushed a virginal pink and he was kneeling over Will's very attentive, straining cock. "K-kurt?" Will questioned in a strangled squeak, and purposefully slowly, Kurt lifted and fixed those lust filled eyes at his partner. Will's breath caught in his throat.

"F-fuck." Will stuttered, and Kurt licked his lips. A guttural moan fell unbidden from Will's lips as Kurt lapped pearly white pre cum from his glans, then smiled devilishly and dragged a flattened tongue from base to tip, flicking at the slit before pulling back again. Will was shaking with his effort to keep himself under control. "Fucking t-tease. . ." The younger man smirked.

"I promised you a lesson, _William_" he drawled, and Will whimpered.

"K-Kurt . . ."

Kurt shook his head, the look in his eyes a mix of desire and mischief. He squeezed Will's cock firmly and laughed throatily at the moan that ensued.

"No, William." he said, and pumped leisurely with one hand, holding Will's hips down with the other to prevent him from thrusting. "Right now, it's Mr. Hummel to you."

Will's eyes didn't have a chance to show shock as his lover punctuated the remark by engulfing his cock in his mouth. Will's eyes rolled back, the vibrations from Kurt's – no ooohh fuck, _Mr. Hummel's_ amused chuckle ripping through the very fabric of his being. God, the warmth, the – Oh god, the man was humming, that gorgeous voice mixed with the intensity of sensation was almost too much to bear.

The strained noise Will emitted was cut short by a silent yell – he couldn't get a sound out if he tried. The younger man deep throated him, and then his tongue was dragging up Will's length with incredible perfect pressure, tongue flicking circularly around the tip, fluttering licks teasing at the slit. He nearly cried he was so damn close.

"P-please . . .M-Mr. . . Hu-Hum. . ." Will couldn't even get the full name out as his lover sucked him deep into his mouth again. His cock hit the back of the Kurt's throat, the base tightly enclosed in the younger man's lips, a hot exhale from the nose teasing his balls. That was it. Holy fuck, he couldn't take it anymore, and he exploded into his lover's willing mouth, Kurt swallowing it greedily and shuddering with the whimpering noises escaping Will's throat in staccato.

Kurt shakily got to his feet, and Will pulled him back into his lap, kissing him soundly on the lips, shuddering at the mixed taste of himself and cherry chapstick. He went for Kurt's belt buckle, but the young man stopped him, and shook his head.

"No, William, that one was just for you." Will's looked at him in surprise, but Kurt just smiled and shrugged slightly. "Really, I'll be okay."

"Are you . . ." Kurt nodded firmly before Will could finish his question, and Will chuckled lightly. "Only because you insist, but K-" he paused and blushed. "Can I call you Kurt again?"

The younger man outright laughed, then nuzzled himself into Will's chest, absently playing with the thin layer of hair covering his lover's toned torso.

"One condition." Kurt said with a smirk, and Will raised an eyebrow. Kurt stopped his fidgeting for a moment to rest his palm on Will's chest and look up at him.

"Stay here tonight." Kurt whispered. "Just stay with me."

Will's slowly forming ecstatic grin was contagious and Kurt mirrored it along with him. Pulling a fleece blanket from the top of the couch, he wrapped the two of them in it and held Kurt a little tighter.

"I'd be a goddamned fool to say no."


	11. Chapter 11

**Title: Just Beginning (11/?)**  
**Authors: ****redelainem**

**Pairing:** Will/Kurt  
**Rating: **R this chapter (precautionary), NC-17 overall  
**Warnings:** underage drinking, alcohol induced OOC-ness, kinda 'cracky', seems to be a bit St. Hummel, but isn't, as well as a mention of a past tryst on Kurt's part.  
**Spoilers:** Up to Duets, then divergent  
**Word Count: 6947 ****this chapter. Current total**** 38278**  
**Disclaimer:** Glee and its characters don't belong to me.  
**Summary:** Kurt has a plan. After graduation, he's headed to New York City to find his place in the world, hopefully on Broadway. Things aren't happening as expected, however, when the one person he needs to get out of his system has coinciding plans . . .

**AN: **Don't kill me for the first section; This chapter goes from angst to crack in pretty short order. A little low on the Will/Kurt interaction, but it's definitely in there. This is a bit of a plot chapter. A really fun plot chapter. Sorry it took so long (a week's a long time for me between updates) but this chapter is longer than all the others, so I hope that makes up for the delay somewhat. Enjoy!

* * *

Kurt entered the theater with a frown. Deciding that this would be the best place for him and Jesse to meet had been a subject he had put a lot of thought into. He didn't want to make the whole situation any more awkward than it already was by inviting Jesse to his apartment. Though Kurt took what he thought was every precaution and then some, he was still walking into the building with nerves shot to hell. Of course, it didn't help that on top of that, Kurt was in a rather bitchy mood this evening. He had almost wished that he hadn't asked Will to spend the night two evenings ago, because the man had been a completely unreasonable grump in the morning.

Kurt's mood had gotten progressively worse over the course of the last day and a half. Most of the reason for this rotten, particularly snappy attitude had been Will pissing him off since yesterday morning. Kurt knew that this whole not-date with Jesse would bother his mate – hell, it bothered Kurt too – but Will's possessive attitude was bordering on controlling.

Will had just short of demanded that Kurt bring his phone with him – Kurt would have anyway, but that wasn't the point. The older man had followed up that conversation with having the gall to suggest an outfit for Kurt's little outing. Kurt refused without even looking at what the older man had been holding up; Will's fashion sense was only a few notches above Rachel Berry's, after all.

The lecture about alcohol was probably the worst of it. Will had completely gone into 'serious adult teacher mode' on the subject. Besides the uncomfortable feeling of getting back into that teacher student groove, the conversation irritated him. He was 19, dammit, and like many people his age he was quite familiar with both the risks and the material. After all, what did Will honestly think his glee club members had been doing on the weekends in that boring, lame excuse for a town?

Will was sitting at his 'desk' when Kurt entered, flipping through papers and jotting notes. Kurt smirked and walked over, slightly disappointed when Will noticed him coming and looked up. The young man had planned to surprise him, do something cute to make him jump, and perhaps make an attempt at putting his irritation on the back burner.

Unfortunately, Will was still set to condescending mode. His initial smiling greeting had wiped off his face and was shifting to a frown.

"You're honestly going to wear. . ." Will began, gesturing up and down with his hand. "_that?_"

So much for the play nice plan. Kurt's eyes narrowed into a glare and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Will. I really can't see what the problem is. If I came out here in leather and chains, sure, say something." he paused. "Actually, if I do that you're free to call the asylum, because I'll have obviously lost my mind." Kurt said. Will was not amused.

"Your pants have . . . What the hell is that, anyway?"

Kurt sighed and looked down to his black Alexander McQueen skinny jeans. Alright, okay, they were a bit suggestive. The design that graced the top were wings, though they gave the look of hands gripping his hips. He loved them; they were one of his favorite pairs, had cost him a pretty penny, and it wasn't the first time he'd worn them. He rolled his eyes.

"What do you want me to do, Will? If you think I'm going to go out tonight wearing rags just to appease your jealous paranoia, you have another thing coming." Will's eyes widened.

"Whoa, calm down, Kurt. I was just saying. . ."

"You were just implying that I don't dress like this everyday, and you know that I do. I'm not about to dress down just because I'm going to be spending time with Jesse." Kurt stuck his nose in the air. "I have standards." Will sighed.

"I know." The older man said in the most appeasing tone he could generate. "Look, I just can't help being nervous about this whole thing. I mean it's practically a date, you look fantastic, and you're both going to be drinking." Will shook his head. "I'm just worried."

"I'm beginning to feel like you don't trust me." Kurt muttered, and Will got to his feet to grab the other man by his arms.

"I do trust you. I do. It's just that I don't trust Jesse and . . ." Will began, but was once again interrupted by the last voice he wanted to hear. How the hell was Saint James so damn good at sneaking up on him?

"This is cute." Jesse stated, and Kurt jumped in surprise. Will dropped his arms to his sides and stared to the left of them where Jesse was standing, hands in his pockets, a smug look on his face. Jesse turned to Kurt and smirked. "Schuester, huh? I suppose that explains his attitude from the other day." Kurt glared and Jesse turned to Will with a look of amusement. "Possessive little cradle robber, aren't you?"

Kurt had to grab the back of Will's shirt to keep him from decking Jesse right then and there.

"This is not the way to start the night, Saint James." Kurt growled, and was surprised when Jesse had the sense to look the slightest bit apologetic. He held up his hands in mock defensive before dropping them again.

"Got it. Not my place to judge." Jesse again turned to Will. "I'm not out to seduce your boyfriend, Schuester. My main goal is perfection in this upcoming role. I don't settle for less." He smiled. "Ever." Will's eyes remained narrowed.

"If you so much as touch him . . ." Jesse shook his head as Will trailed off.

"I can't promise that, Schuester." At Will's renewed tensing, Jesse held up his hand. "Relax and let me finish." he said quickly. "There's rather emotional interaction that the two of us need to work on. Some of it requires touch. What I will promise is that I won't initiate any of the more physical practices. That will completely be up to Kurt." Jesse smirked. "And I believe I just overheard you stressing that you trusted him, so there should be no problem with this arrangement." Will grit his teeth, and Kurt's eyes widened.

Damn, Jesse was good. Kurt chanced a glance at his boyfriend. When Will looked at him, Kurt cocked an eyebrow in challenge. Jesse had Will in checkmate and all three of them knew it.

"Fine." Will finally growled out, and then turned to Kurt. "I'll have my phone on. If you get uncomfortable at all, just call." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Will, I'm not a child. Quit treating me like one. Those days are long over and I am fully capable of taking care of myself." Will bit his lip – Kurt could tell Will wanted to say something, but he older man just nodded.

Kurt couldn't help but feel a little guilty about the statement. It needed to be said, sure, but he knew it to be one of those borderline taboo subjects between the two of them. Usually he refrained from being the one to remind Will of their former teacher student relationship, but really, the man had to realize that he wasn't that sixteen year old kid anymore. He was an adult, dammit, and he wanted to be treated as such.

"Kurt, can you stop glaring at me?" Will whispered and Kurt blinked. The younger man hadn't realized he'd been glaring at all. Will looked worried and wholly uncomfortable, and Kurt wasn't sure if he wanted to yell at him for being paranoid or kiss him to reassure him. He decided on neither, and instead simply nodded slowly, then turned to Jesse.

"Let's go." Kurt said simply. He turned on his heel, intending to make his way towards the exit. Jesse shrugged and shifted to follow Kurt.

"Wait." Will grabbed Kurt by the elbow and spun him to face him. "Don't forget about me tonight." Will whispered, and Kurt's eyes widened in a mix of surprise that seeped into anger. Will had crossed the thin line keeping Kurt from snapping with that statement. Don't forget about him? What did Will take him for? He wasn't someone who would go and have a few drinks and forget he had a goddamned boyfriend!

He was about to retort when Will crushed his lips onto his, but for once, Kurt wanted nothing of it. Putting his hands on Will's chest, he shoved him away. The older man stumbled back in his shock and likely would have tripped over himself if not for the table he had backed into.

"How _dare _you?" Kurt fumed. "How the hell can you say you trust me and then say a thing like that? Have you completely lost your mind?" Kurt growled, walked up to Will ignoring the shocked pain on the older man's features, and pointed a finger at his chest. "Kissing me to stake some sort of neanderthal claim on me is _not_ helping you! This isn't the time or the place for you to be so damn territorial! I know this might sound a touch hypocritical right now, considering I'm screaming at you, but grow the fuck up, William. I haven't given you any reason not to trust me about this . . ."

"You're full of shit, Kurt!" Will snapped, the hurt on his face replaced by anger. "Do you even remember what you told me on your birthday? You don't even trust yourself!" He seethed. "Why wouldn't I be worried?" Kurt glared and shook his head tensely.

"If you don't trust me then why the hell are we even bothering with this sham of a relationship?" Kurt yelled, clenched his fists at his sides, and fixed the most dead expression on his face that he could muster. God, was he pissed.

"Go fuck yourself, Mr. Schue. We're through." Kurt said lowly, and stormed out the door.

* * *

"Aren't you going to follow him?" Jesse questioned.

Will didn't respond. Shakily he backed himself towards his chair and nearly fell into it, looking for all the world as if someone had punched him in the gut and was strangling him with his own insides. After watching Schuester gulp not once, not twice, but three times, his eyes rimmed with barely controlled tears, Jesse actually managed to feel bad for him.

"I'm still not going to hit on him." Jesse said. Will remained silent. "I realize my word means nothing to you, and considering your apparent issues with trust . . ."

"Jesse! Shut up!" Will stood and shouted, and Jesse merely blinked. "Look," Will said. "I realize Kurt's angry right now . . ."

"I'd say. He just broke up with you, after all."

Will raised his fist, and Jesse took that as a cue to back up a few steps.

"Schuester, you might want to put that fist down, unless you want to lose your job as well. I bruise easily." Jesse said pointedly. Tensely, Will brought his arm back down to his side with what appeared to be every last ounce of control he had. Instead he grabbed the collar of Jesse's leather jacket, bunching the material in the fist that had earlier been raised for a strike.

"Get" Will growled. "Out!" He released the jacket in a shove, Jesse forced backward a few steps by the push.

Jesse lifted his head slowly and smirked.

"I actually felt sorry for you for a moment. Empathized with you a bit. Heartbreak is wretched, and Kurt has always had a way of talking down to people. I actually respect him a little for that."

"You know _nothing_ about . . ." Will started and Jesse cut him off.

"Can it, Schuester. Like I was attempting to say earlier, I'm not going to throw myself at Hummel. I learned a little something about hurting people when they're vulnerable, back in my days with your comically deficient troupe of misfits." Will narrowed his eyes.

"Before or after you egged Rachel?" Will asked disbelievingly.

"During." he stated, and Will's eyes widened marginally. "I didn't want to do it. I regret doing it. She was the first person to have faith in me, and not because of my rather unfair talent level, but because she saw something in me that I would have never realized I possessed if not for her." Will relaxed in his confusion.

"And just what is that, Jesse?" Will asked disbelievingly. Jesse smirked.

"The ability to give a damn about someone other than myself. Unfortunately for her, the notion that she had affected me made me react foolishly and allow myself to be pressured into cracking that egg on her forehead. I didn't want to feel anything, and I hated her for doing that to me. I hated her for breaking through. And I hated myself for loving her." Will blinked, marginally shocked.

"She told me you apologized." He said slowly and Jesse nodded.

"First time for everything." he shrugged. "I need to get going, no need to piss off your little princess anymore than he already is." Jesse stated. Will opened and closed his mouth a few times before sighing sadly and running his hand through his hair.

"You're really not planning to do anything?"

"No. I was fairly straightforward with my intentions. This is a business meeting of sorts." Jesse frowned. "I think I should be at least number two on your list of things to worry about right now, either way. You have some issues of your own to work on, Schuester, if you want to melt the ice queen."

Jesse turned away and strolled out the door with Will looking on in outright shock. Jesse had been almost . . . nice.

* * *

Kurt was standing stock still next to the door of the theater, arms crossed over his chest and staring at the street blankly when Jesse stepped outside. Sensing that he was no longer alone, Kurt turned to level a glare at Jesse, clearly daring him to say something. Jesse simply motioned to his left with a sweep of his hand, and Kurt rolled his eyes before falling in step with the other man, heading towards whatever establishment Jesse had picked out for the evening.

Kurt could feel the guilt creeping up on him, and though he tried to squash the feeling away, the lump of anxiety in his throat made him want to stop, duck into a corner, and cry. This wasn't how today was supposed to go. Will was supposed to keep to his profession of trust. While the older man had been right about Kurt having trouble having faith in himself during this situation, Kurt had been convinced that having Will believe in him was what was going to keep him doing the right thing and being the better person during this event. Now Kurt had gone and said things he didn't entirely mean.

Damn, had he really told Will to 'fuck off' – that they were 'through'? Sure, Kurt was irritated with the entire situation, but he didn't want to break things off entirely. Will had been a part of his life for so long, and Kurt couldn't imagine a life with out him. He didn't want to either. Kurt was still angry, but he knew he was only this upset because he truly loved that foolish man, and the lack of trust in their relationship really and strongly _hurt_.

Kurt had almost wished that Will had followed him out the door, but supposed the shock had something to do with that not happening. Kurt had heard the protest of the chair that Will had no doubt nearly collapsed onto when Kurt had walked out the door.

Jesse had been in there for a while after Kurt's little diva storm out – Rachel Berry would have been proud – and Kurt couldn't help wondering what the two of them had talked about. He looked to his side briefly; Jesse was staring straight ahead, his hands jammed into his pockets. Well, Will had obviously not gotten completely out of hand; Jesse's face still seemed to be unmarred. Glancing a bit lower revealed the collar of Jesse's shirt to be a bit out of place – one side was flipped upwards slightly and the material around it was wrinkled, unlike the rest of the clearly ironed garment. Interesting.

"What happened in there, anyway?" Kurt asked, and made a pointed nod at the strange imperfection in Jesse's clothing. Jesse's brow furrowed briefly, and he tried unsuccessfully to see what Kurt was making reference to. Kurt rolled his eyes, and reached out to quickly flip the collar back into place – it simply bothered him to see the garment looking the way it did. He wasn't about to do anything about the wrinkles however – he internally squirmed at the thought of touching the other man any longer than fashionably necessary. Damn, they had a lot of work to do to get to that comfort level for the stage.

"I got shoved around a little." Jesse smirked. "Just barely avoided a black eye, I think." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"He's like a child sometimes." Kurt said and Jesse scoffed.

"Says the guy who dumps his boyfriend rather than having a conversation with him about their problems."

Kurt stopped mid-stride and glared at Jesse.

"Well, he should know better. He's been around longer than I have, and he's probably been around the block a few more times." Kurt stated, and Jesse raised an eyebrow.

"Really. Last I recall, William Schuester was straight."

"Your point?"

"I can understand him being a bit more insecure about whatever you two have. Uncharted territory and all that jazz." Jesse shrugged. "I don't think that guy had any idea of what he jumped into with you. He's used to dealing with women – crazy women from what I understand – From what I heard from Rachel way back, his ex-wife was an absolute lunatic." Jesse rolled his eyes. "Can you really blame the guy for having trust issues after dealing with someone like her?"

Kurt gaped at the other man, and then frowned slightly when Jesse stumbled slightly and recovered.

"One." Kurt said slowly. "To answer your question, you may have a point. And two, have you been drinking already? Because seriously, you're not acting the way I expected of you and you're a little less than graceful . . ." Jesse smirked and nodded slightly sheepishly.

"Yeah, I had a couple of courage shots before I came over. No big deal, I just figured we wouldn't get anywhere with my defenses as sharp as they usually are." Jesse smiled. "Seems to have worked alright so far." Glancing up at an illuminated neon light, Jesse pointed at the fixture hanging off the side of the building five feet ahead of them. "We're here." he said.

Kurt paused at the entrance, mentally steeling himself. The exterior of the building was a typical brick, the windows obscuring the inside with an opaque tint. He was nervous, though he figured it wouldn't do to admit such a thing to Jesse. From the look on the slightly older man's face, it appeared Kurt didn't' need to say anything. God damn that guy's cocky grin. Kurt had to admit to himself that the walk over hadn't been as horrendous as he had been anticipating, and as Jesse opened the door and Kurt followed, the younger man hoped that he'd be able to remain in decent spirits about the endeavor. It was already going to be a bit of an upward climb due to the events at the theater, but Kurt was hoping the alcohol would dull that a bit – at least enough to wash down the the guilt nagging in his throat.

The interior was surprisingly clean; Kurt had expected the place to be a complete dive. It turned out that the establishment was far from what he had imagined – the décor was almost tasteful, as tasteful as a bar could get, anyway. It was that thought that struck him with a sudden realization.

"Jesse. . ." Kurt began, and Jesse turned to look at him, that ever present smirk for once not bothering the younger man. "Is this a _gay_ bar?"

Jesse smiled slightly. Then, he nodded affirmatively.

"Figured you'd be more comfortable here. That's what this whole business meeting is for, anyway. It's all low key, too. The clientele doesn't get too rambunctious, and if they do the barkeep makes short work of throwing them out." Jesse replied. He motioned for Kurt to follow him, and Kurt did, still in slight shock.

The bartender greeted Jesse in a familiar manner, and Jesse nodded at the middle-aged man. Turning to Kurt, Jesse looked at him questioningly.

"So what are you drinking?" Jesse queried and Kurt frowned. He hadn't given the topic any thought beforehand, and he just shrugged in response. Jesse rolled his eyes and turned to the bartender who was eying Kurt a bit warily. 'Great,' Kurt thought sarcastically. 'He knows I'm not old enough.' Jesse cleared his throat and the bartender turned to look back at him.

"Your son's going to be rather upset if I have to leave before I sing for him tonight." Jesse said simply, and the old man's mouth quirked up in amusement before rolling his eyes.

"Whatever kid, you know I don't care all that much. As far as I know, you came in alone and you're drinking double time." The bartender said with a shrug. "The usual?" he asked and Jesse turned to Kurt.

"You like Midori?" Jesse asked and Kurt replied with a slow nod. The old man behind the bar took the nod as a 'go ahead' and began prepping a pair of martini glasses. "Nice." Jesse said. "This drink's a little strong so take it slow."

Kurt watched the barkeep and couldn't help the slightly disgusted look that crept onto his face when the man had finished preparing the three layered _thing_ Jesse had ordered.

"That looks revolting." Kurt said and Jesse chuckled.

"It does, but it's good." he paused, and when Kurt made no move to take his glass, Jesse continued. "It's called a 'Sexy Alligator.'" Kurt merely raised an eyebrow, and Jesse smirked. "Midori, J_ä_ger, Chambord, Malibu, and pineapple juice. Just try it Hummel, it's fantastic." He emphasized his point by taking a rather long sip from his glass, and smiled. "Once you get past the Jägermeister it's actually rather sweet."

Kurt sighed and picked up the offering with a grimace. Really, it looked absolutely terrible, but Jesse's warning of it being strong was what actually gave him the motivation to try the concoction. He was rather pleasantly surprised upon his first drag of the liquid, but nearly dropped the glass when Jesse shot out of his seat to pull it away.

"Whoa! Kurt, seriously, you need to slow down on that. I've seen two hundred pound men get plastered off of two of those things!" Kurt cocked an eyebrow and then looked at his glass in mild surprise, finding he'd downed nearly half of it in one go. Oops. "Please tell me you're not a lightweight?" Jesse asked. Kurt flinched slightly, already feeling the beginning numbing effects of the beverage. He didn't respond and Jesse groaned.

"Schuester's going to kill me."

The mention of Will and the subsequent lurch of anxiety made Kurt gulp – and foolishly take the glass and slam the rest of its contents down his throat. The look of surprised and slightly intoxicated horror on Jesse's face made Kurt giggle. Kurt then shrugged, a rather goofy smile on his own face as he replaced the glass on the bar, clapped Jesse on the back, and led him to one of the booths lining the semi-dark building.

"Don't worry about Will, that's my problem." Kurt said and Jesse growled slightly.

"He's my problem too, Hummel. _Wicked_ ring any bells?" He sighed. "You barely get that drink in you and you're already giggling." He paused, his eyes widening slightly. "Shit. Don't tell me you . . ." Kurt laughed, and Jesse dropped his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as if staving off an awful headache.

"You're not the only one who needed a little courage beforehand." Kurt winked before he realized he was going to do so, and then shrugged it away. "I managed to blackmail Puckerman into making me a fake ID a while back." Kurt smirked. "Turns out he didn't want anyone knowing about his secret fascination with woman's underwear." Jesse quizzically stared at him for a moment, and Kurt continued. "He likes to wear it." Kurt sniggered. "We had this little fling; he was curious and I helped him out."

"Are you serious?" Jesse asked, and Kurt's eyes widened comically.

"Oh." he said with a blush. "Oh for the love of Prada, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that." Kurt brought a hand to cover the nervous giggle emanating from his mouth. Then he gasped and fidgeted a bit in his seat, his eyes widening. "I'm so dead."

Jesse, who had just finished taking the last swig of his drink had to gulp it down quickly to keep from spitting out the damn thing with his laughter.

"I'm not . . ." he paused, waited a few moments to steady his voice, and continued. "I'm not going to tell anyone." Jesse smirked at himself when he tried to take another sip out of his empty glass, then turned back to Kurt, his eyes glittering in amusement. "Maybe Rachel." Kurt's eyes filled with horror.

"You can't!" He said quickly, "Forget Will, I'll kill you!" Jesse had to bite his lip to keep from cracking up again.

"It was a joke, Hummel." he said and Kurt stared at him for a second.

"It was a horrible joke. Rachel had one of the biggest mouths in Lima; she'd tell _everyone_." Kurt breathed out. Jesse shrugged.

"Let's just drop the Rachel subject, shall we? How about we . . ." Jesse was cut off by the sound of Kurt's phone blaring an alarm, and he shrugged. "That's one way to kill the conversation." Jesse said. Kurt rolled his eyes and deftly flipped the device open with a grin. The look fell slightly when he saw that alert had been due to a text message from Will.

"I'm sorry. Can we talk?" The message said, and Kurt sighed, biting his lip. He turned to Jesse, and answered his unspoken question by showing him the message that was currently lighting up his screen.

"Jesse, do you think you could excuse me for a minute? Get us another drink or something? I think I might do better with one." Jesse looked at Kurt for a moment before rising to his feet.

"I'm not carrying you home, you know." he said, and Kurt scoffed.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. Bring a shot." Kurt said, and rolled his eyes. "And a chaser. Blueberry Wachusett or something. If they have it. 'Cedes brought me some to try from Boston and they're just yummy." Jesse shrugged, leaving when Kurt waved him off with a limp wrist-ed shooing motion.

Kurt's phone barely rang before Will picked up.

"Kurt!" The voice came quickly, and Kurt's eyes widened slightly at the thankful tone projected hurriedly over the line. Kurt licked his lips, and cautiously responded.

"William." He replied, more flatly than he had intended, and the slight pause seemed elongated and deafening.

"I. I was out of line. I'm so sorry." Will laughed pitifully. "I'm a bit insecure and," Kurt could hear the gulp Will took after the statement, but didn't respond as the older man continued. "I know have problems with . . . with trust, and my temper, and . . ."

"Possessiveness?" Kurt supplied.

"Y-yeah." The sound of Will's voice cracking was nearly Kurt's undoing. "I don't want us to end, Kurt. I can't . . ." Kurt sighed, and then noticed Jesse slowly coming back with two shot glasses in one hand and . . . soda? Damn. Kurt put his finger to his lips in hopes that Jesse would keep quiet, which he thankfully did.

"Look, William . . ." Kurt began, cringing a bit at how slurred the name came out past his lips. "I love you, but I'm kind of drunk, and I can't make any promises right now. Sooo I'll call you back later."

"You still love me?" Will asked and Kurt rolled his eyes in a mix of annoyance and amusement.

"Wow, Will, yeah. 'Course I do. I'm just_ really _kind of mad about you being all crazy and thinking I'd cheat on you with Jesse – he's not too bad to deal with when he's drunk though, and he's cute, so I get it." Jesse raised an eyebrow and Kurt smacked him on the shoulder and pointed at him, smirking and shaking his head 'no.' "I have a brilliant idea, though Will . . . Give us like an hour or so more, and then you should meet us here. B'cause Jesse doesn't want to carry me home, and I'd totally rather you did it anyway." Kurt could practically hear the smile in Will's voice when he replied.

"Yeah, I'll be there." Kurt grinned and handed the phone to Jesse to give Will directions, and after that was all set and Jesse had hung up, Kurt reached for the shot on the table.

"Wait, there's a method for this." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"I've done tequila shots before, Mister Saint James. Though my dear Brittany was a bit lewd. . ." Kurt didn't continue with his statement and simply used his finger to swipe the salt off the rim of the glass, sucking it off of his finger in a manner rather slow and a purposely phallic. He then took the shot and made a show of squeezing the juice out of the lime wedge, his lips closing on the fruit and pulling it away with slow, mischievous purpose.

Jesse just stared for a second, eyes wide as saucers.

"K-kurt . . ." He choked out. "I think you're done with the liquor." Jesse rose to his feet quickly and stood at the other side of the table, grabbing his own shot and downing it without preamble. He pointed to Kurt, glass still wrapped around the other fingers of his hand. Kurt had a rather pleased, rather smug smile lining his features, and Jesse shook his head. "You're making it really hard for me to behave myself, Hummel." The slightly older man shook his pointing finger. "Don't do that again, or all bets are off."

Kurt couldn't help it. He laughed. He laughed so hard he had to hold his hand to his stomach, and had to wipe mirthful tears from his cheeks with the other. Jesse rolled his eyes in amusement.

"I'm going to go sing. Join me if you want." Jesse said with a smirk. "Just get that damn mischief under control first." Kurt nodded, his laughter abated and a semi serious look gracing his face.

"I was just testing you." he said with a light shrug. "Besides, tequila shots are supposed to be sexy. Your fault for bringing them." Jesse shook his head.

"Jesus, how did a Chia pet like Schuester get so damn lucky?" Kurt got up, a bit wobbly on his feet, to smack Jesse on the top of his head. Kurt's nose wrinkled when he noticed whatever product Jesse had been using on his hair had transferred onto his hand.

"Lay off of Will, you ass." he said jovially. "And for the love of Paul Mitchell, you have no right to say anything about hair." Kurt wiped his hand on the back of Jesse's shirt with an exaggerated look of disgust and slight amusement. "Come on, I need to get my glee on." Jesse rolled his eyes, and Kurt raised an eyebrow in challenge, seeming to sober momentarily. "No more bashing New Directions, Jesse. Seriously. You want us to get along and work together, then leave my friends out of it."

"But they . . ."

"No." Kurt replied firmly, then stumbled over himself, quite easily losing his serious effect. Jesse chuckled.

"Fine. I think though that we're going to have to cancel the karaoke part." He smirked. "You can barely stand." Kurt's eyes narrowed.

"Shut up." Kurt said with a pout. Then he realized he was being 'cute' again and sucked his bottom lip into his mouth.

Suddenly, Kurt stilled momentarily, and looked to Jesse with a semi-worried expression on his face. "I think I need to go outside." Jesse's eyes widened slightly in comprehension and guided Kurt to the exit, ignoring the barkeeps glare as he stepped out the door.

"I'm going to hear it for not going through with the karaoke tonight, you realize." Jesse began, but shut his mouth at the green look that overcame Kurt's features. Kurt slid down the brick wall of the exterior, putting his head down on raised knees. Jesse smirked and shook his head before sitting down Indian style next to Kurt.

"You're not supposed to turn that shade until dress rehearsal, you know." Kurt raised his head slowly to glare at Jesse.

"Fuck off, Fiyero." Kurt said with a weak smile, and Jesse chuckled.

"Oh well, they really should have to pay to hear my magnificence, anyway." Jesse smirked, and Kurt smiled into his knees.

They stayed quiet for around fifteen minutes, Jesse lost in thought and Kurt trying to get his spinning head and sour stomach under control. Finally feeling his dizziness ebb, Kurt raised his head again and took to glaring at Jesse's hair. Jesse's face turned to a look of scrunched up confusion, and Kurt giggled.

"Feeling better?" Jesse asked,

"A bit . . ." Kurt began, and then reached for a lock of the slightly older man's hair. Jesse smirked and looked at him quizzically.

"What are you doing?" Jesse asked and Kurt shrugged.

"I'm bored. Shut up. Makeover. Face forward." Jesse shrugged and looked back toward the street, a bit surprised when he realized the other man was _braiding_ his hair.

"You're completely wasted, Hummel, you know this, right?" Kurt smiled.

"Yeah whatever. Says the normally stoic ass-hat letting me braid his hair." Kurt smirked and worked for a few minutes before speaking up again. "Okay, look at me." Jesse did, and Kurt burst out laughing.

"Oh Gaga, you look like the bastard child of a bad weave and a freight train." Kurt was literally kicking his feet in his amusement, and Jesse was biting his lip and resisting the urge to break out in laughter himself.

This was how Will found the two of them, staring with an expression that could only be described as 'What the hell?'

Jesse noticed him first; Kurt was still busy laughing at Jesse's expense.

Will walked up to the pair, and Jesse rose to standing. Kurt stopped laughing abruptly, his eyes widening in surprise when Will had stepped in front of him.

"I know those shoes!" Kurt exclaimed happily, and lifted his head up quickly – a little too quickly, his stomach reminded him lightly – and he beamed at Will. "You need new shoes, Will, those are just horrible." Will furrowed his brow, smirked, and shook his head before offering his hand to help Kurt up.

Unlike the time he'd fainted in the auditorium, this time Kurt took it; he knew he'd make a fool of himself trying to get up on his own. The forward momentum of the hand up caused Kurt to stumble into the hard plains of Will's chest. Without the barest amount of thought, Kurt wrapped his arms around Will and sighed.

"Sorry I was a bitch, William." Kurt murmured and Will returned the embrace, chuckling lightly.

"We've both been a little out of control lately." he replied, and Kurt leaned back with a dirty grin.

"It hasn't been all that bad, though . . . the out of control thing." Kurt said with a suggestive drawl and Will blushed rather heavily. Jesse cleared his throat.

"I think that's my cue to leave." Jesse said, and Kurt gently removed himself from Will's arms with a reassuring glance. Kurt turned to Jesse and smirked. It was a little difficult to give Jesse a straight look with the havoc Kurt had wreaked on the the man's hair. Kurt smiled.

"We're going to kill this production." Kurt said simply, and Jesse chuckled.

"Of course I am." Jesse replied. Kurt rolled his eyes. "This whole night was my idea, anyway. Like all of my genius plans, I think it's safe to say it was a rather large success." Kurt shook his head and laughed.

"I think you need another drink, Saint James, you're starting to sound like yourself again." Jesse shrugged in response. "Seriously though, Jesse, you're not nearly the soulless devil I thought you were." Kurt stated and Jesse scoffed.

"Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold." he paused. "A very impressive, highly feared reputation at that." Kurt lifted an eyebrow, then smirked in eye-glittering mischief.

"Knock it off before I go get another shot of tequila and knock you down a peg." Jesse's eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he colored scarlet.

"I'm starting to think Schuester was right about you, Hummel." Jesse said after a pause and looked to Will. "You have to get this guy a goddamn leash!"

Will flushed and looked to Kurt. The young man's response had been to bounce on his heels giddily. Kurt turned to Will and fluttered his eyelashes.

"I _love_ that idea! Sparkles? Can it have sparkles, William?" Will gulped, flushed impossibly red, and nodded dumbly. Jesse chuckled and shook his head.

"I think my work here is done." Jesse said, then blinked in surprise when Kurt whipped back around to face him.

Kurt took a deep breath, then opened and closed his fists a few times, before shoving a hand out in front of Jesse.

"Friends?" Kurt choked out the question. He knew it was probably the alcohol talking to give him such a leap of faith, but regardless, it was worth a shot. The two of them still had a lot of work to do, but if anything, Kurt was quite sure that Jesse was actually trying – even if he was an asshole, generally. Kurt figured he should try as well.

Jesse smirked and shook Kurt's hand, and then Kurt yanked Jesse forward.

"Tell Rachel about Puck and I'll castrate you. Friendly warning." Kurt whispered into Jesse's ear with a hiss, and Jesse chuckled as he leaned away from the other man.

"Don't worry about it." He said. "I'll see you two on Monday." With that, Jesse turned and walked off, his hand in the air in a bit of a backwards wave goodbye.

Kurt turned back to Will with a rather devious grin on his face. Will was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, and Kurt licked his lips before smiling.

"We need to go shopping tomorrow, William." Kurt drawled, then grabbed the older man's necktie and pulled him to eye-level, Kurt's gaze smoky and his mouth slightly open. "I need to get some glittery accessories." Kurt whispered seductively. "It's hardly . . . fair that I can just pull you around when I want to . . ." The younger man let his statement drift off as he pulled Will closer, meeting the older man's lips with his own for a rather slow and highly sensuous kiss. Pulling back, Will whimpered slightly at the loss. Kurt smirked. "It would be nice if you could do the same, hmm?" Will gulped and nodded, rendered momentarily speechless. Kurt chuckled lightly. "That is." Kurt began. "If you think you can take me."

Will's eyes went impossibly wide.

"K-kurt . . . what are you saying? You." Will stuttered. "You're drunk, I can't. . ." Kurt smiled.

"Not tonight." Kurt whispered lowly. "Tomorrow night, your place." Kurt grabbed Will's hand and placed it firmly on his designer jean clad ass.

"You can be as possessive as you want."


End file.
